THLN updates shelter, public on new animal laws News Staff Tue, 02/27/2024 - 11:43 am
- (THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Texas Humane Legislation Network Executive Director Shelby Bobosky provides an overview Sunday, Feb. 25 of new laws in effect in Texas which were passed in the last legislative session.
- (THE GRAHAM LEADER | ARCHIVE PHOTO) A dog sits behind a kennel at the Humane Society of Young County in 2023. The open intake shelter serves the Young County area.
Thomas Wallner editor@grahamleader.com
Representatives of the Humane Society of Young County and the public received information from the Texas Humane Legislation Network (THLN) of laws passed in the 88th Texas Legislature.
THLN is a nonprofit organization that promotes the humane treatment of animals through legislation and advocacy. Executive Director Shelby Bobosky, an attorney who became passionate about animal laws to protect animals and shelters, spoke at the event Sunday, Feb. 25.
“We’ve passed everything from the dogfighting law, to the animal cruelty law, to the first actual laws that have been passed for humane sheltering, because they never existed before 1997,” she said.
One of the most important state laws for animal cruelty is Loco’s Law, part of House Bill 653 and Senate Bill 1724, which went into effect Sept. 1, 2001 and made animal cruelty a felony and punishable by a $10,000 fine and up to two years in jail.
Prior to the Loco’s Law, animal cruelty was not considered a felony under Texas law. Bobosky said the law paved the way for further legislation and action in the state.
“Loco really put a face to the animal cruelty that we needed to enhance and strengthen our animal cruelty law,” Bobosky said. “…And then from 1997, we had our first jail felony. And now it could be up to third degree, depending on the crime that is committed.”
One of the laws that recently went into effect Sept. 1, 2023 and is a further strengthening of animal cruelty laws is HB 598, which imposes a five-year possession ban after an animal cruelty conviction. If found in possession of an animal the offender could be charged with a Class C misdemeanor, or a fine up to $500.
Bobosky said many in the state are also unaware that abandoning a pet is a Class A misdemeanor under Texas animal cruelty law. This law relates to abandoning an animal in the person’s custody without making reasonable arrangements for assumption of custody by another person.
If the conviction is a third offense, the state can punish the defendant with a state jail felony which could include jail time from 180 days to two years and a fine up to $10,000.
As an exception to the animal cruelty law, Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs under HB 3660 and SB 1682 are not considered abandonment.
The method is used to stabilize the feral cat population by humanely trapping them, transporting them to a veterinary clinic for sterilization and vaccination and then tipping their ears as a sign they have been treated.
Another law from the last legislative session was HB 4164, which is a service dog law that hopes to decrease the number instances where people are misrepresenting their pet dogs as service animals to have them in public spaces.
“We have a lot of young college students in certain areas that claim their dogs or service dogs, and they’re not trained, and they’re coming into restaurants and they are scaring actual service dogs,” Bobosky said. “If you’re in a restaurant, and there’s a service dog in there, you shouldn’t even know it because they’re doing their job. They’re staying by you (and) they’re being quiet. We’ve seen a lot of bad behavior from some dogs.”
The fine for having an untrained pet as a service animal increased from $300 to $1,000 and the offender could be required to perform 30 hours of community service for organizations serving persons with disabilities.
Some of the laws the organization is working to address in the future are removing ag exemptions from properties where the landowner is convicted of animal cruelty, humane pet store regulations, spay/neuter initiatives, bills to help with veterinarian shortages and more.
“We have a $321 billion budget for ‘24-’25, and we have a $32 billion surplus. So our number one goal next session, and we’re still working on it, is to try to get funding for some of our most rural areas to build a shelter,” Bobosky said. “We don’t have shelters in our rural areas and we know that you guys need them and/or at least funding for our nonprofit partners that take on a lot of the animals.”
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