Texas Dog Owners Rights Threatened Again
DOG OWNER'S RIGHTS THREATENED! QUICK ACTION NEEDED!
May 4, 2005
Austin Animal Aware has learned that:
The rights of dog owners, especially those owners of large breeds, are again being threatened by the Texas Legislature. If HB 2840, which has cleared the House of Representatives and is now in the Senate becomes law it will:
· Impose ridiculous requirements on the enclosure for keeping a dog.
· Make virtually any attack by a dog even if it is on a leash grounds to destroy the dog.
· Make a dog owner responsible for any damage another person does in defending himself from a dog attack even if the owner was not at fault.
· Allow someone to kill a dog to prevent an attack without any limit on the reasonableness of the means being used (under the proposed language, someone could use a shotgun to defend himself against a Chihuahua or Miniature Poodle).
· Give local animal control authority the ability to imposed additional requirements for dog enclosures which will open the door for breed specific ordinances. For example, animal control could make the requirements for the enclosure in which a specific breed (e.g., a pit bull), has to be kept so outrageous and expensive that no one could ever comply with them and thus could not own a pit bill.
This law will apply statewide and is even worse than HB 1096 which only applies in Houston. The sponsor of this bill in the Senate is Senator Kip Averitt, his contact information is as follows:
Senator Kip Averitt
(512) 463-0122 (phone)
(512) 475-3729 (fax)
Email: [email protected]
PLEASE call him and ask him not to pursue this BIll.
The bill has been assigned to the senate Criminal Justice Committee. The contact information for the members of the senate Criminal Justice Committee are as follows:
Senator Capitol Phone Capitol Fax E-mail
John Whitmire, Chair (512) 463-0115 (512) 475-3737 [email protected]
Kel Seliger, Vice Chair (512) 463-0131 (512) 475-3733 [email protected]
John Carona (512) 463-0116 (512) 463-3135 [email protected]
Rodney Ellis (512) 463-0113 (512) 463-0006 [email protected]
Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa (512) 463-0120 (512) 463-0229 [email protected]
Steve Ogden (512) 463-0105 (512) 463-5713 [email protected]
Tommy Williams (512) 463-0104 (512) 463-6373 [email protected]
Please call each of them and ask them to vote against HB 2840. ACT TODAY - WE'RE SHORT ON TIME.
Austin Animal Aware
http://www.austinanimalaware.org
[email protected]
