Backers of vetoed bill to protect dogs welcome a second chance
Gov. Greg Abbott slammed a dog protection bill as micromanaging and over-penalizing owners in a statement accompanying his June veto of the legislation.
Then he put the bill on the agenda for the special legislative session that started Monday.
The do-over comes after a stunned and angry reaction to the unexpected veto, in which Abbott criticized measures that were already in place and not new with the proposed bill, written to help law enforcement save dogs from dying at the end of heavy chain tethers in extreme weather conditions.
Senate Bill 474, the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act, had passed in both legislative chambers with wide bipartisan support during one of the most divided and controversial
legislative sessions in recent history. But Abbott vetoed the bill, arguing it placed unnecessary burdens on animal
owners.
“We were just floored when we saw the veto, we just couldn’t
believe it,” said Stacy Sutton Kerby, director of government relations for the Texas Humane Legislative Network, which works to pass anti-cruelty legislation.
The nonprofit has been working to pass the legislation for over a decade, and this was the closest it had come to success.
“This isn’t a bill that came out of nowhere, and it’s definitely not any kind of overreach,” Kerby said.
Abbott was widely criticized for the veto; dog lovers across Texas inundated the bill’s author as well as Abbott’s office with calls, demanding the governor reverse his decision. #AbbottHatesDogs and #AbbottFailedTexas trended on social media platforms for days.
The bill was written to fix loopholes in an already existing animal cruelty law, most importantly to empower law enforcement to intervene when dogs were found in inhumane conditions.
“All of the items mentioned in the veto statement are in current law,” said the bill’s author, state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., DBrownsville. “Senate Bill 474 just amends the health and safety code by striking the existing section and replacing it with new language.”
Rather than impose more burdens on dog owners, SB 474 expands the exceptions under the current law, supporters said. It keeps the penalties the same as the current law.
A representative for Abbott’s office declined to answer questions and referred to the veto statement instead.
Kerby and Lucio said the third session is a welcome second chance that they are working to not let slip through their fingers. But agreeing on the legislative language needed to lead to positive change is a delicate dance.
“I think he got the message loud and clear from the people around Texas that contacted him,” Lucio said of Abbott. “But I give him a lot of credit to give the bill a second chance because many of the bills that are vetoed, I don’t remember in all my years in the Legislature, 35, ever being given a second chance by the governor to pass a bill after he or she vetoes it.”
‘Fighting the clock’
Statutes regarding outdoor tethering of dogs have been in effect in Texas since 2007, when former Gov. Rick Perry signed House Bill 1411 into law.
Known as the Unlawful Restraint of a Dog Bill, the current law makes it illegal to leave dogs tethered outside in a restraint that “unreasonably limits” a dog’s movement. It applies during the hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., within 500 feet of a school and in extreme weather events, such as when temperatures drop below 32 degrees or when a heat advisory, hurricane, tropical storm or tornado warning has been issued.
Unreasonable restraints are defined as choking or prong collars and tethers that are shorter than the length from the tip of a dog’s nose to the base of a dog’s tail. The bill allows exceptions for owners of dogs who are involved in farming, ranching and other agriculture-related businesses.
The biggest loophole the current law creates is a waiting period for law enforcement to take any action against a dog owner in violation of the law. Officers must wait 24 hours after issuing a warning before they are able to intervene if an owner does not comply.
“Basically it never really allowed law enforcement or animal control to take action at the time they saw the activity occurring,” Kerby said.
During extreme weather events, the 24-hour waiting period can mean life or death for an animal.
“Animals just like people out in the heat or on concrete, you may not survive that 24 hours. Time is against us, you are fighting the clock,” said Chief Brian Harris of Harris County Constable Precinct 5, a founding agency of the Harris County Animal Cruelty Task Force. “Can you imagine if we had a law to (wait to) get a dog or a child outside of a locked car for 24 hours? We have such extremes here in the summertime it can be very dangerous.”
Current law states that if an owner does not comply within the 24-hour period, they can face a class C misdemeanor, with a penalty up to $500. That charge is elevated to a class B misdemeanor if an owner has been previously convicted, with a fine of up to $2,000 and 180 days in jail. Separate citations are issued if there is more than one dog.
Abbott said in his veto statement that “Texas is no place for this kind of micromanaging and over-criminalization,” but SB 474 keeps criminal penalties the same as under the current law and expands exceptions, including dogs kept in pickup beds and used for agricultural purposes.
Growth in support
Over the last 10 years that the legislation failed to pass and was refiled, the number of stakeholders and supporters has grown to include the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas, the Texas Animal Control Association and hundreds of Texas shelters and rescues. Kerby said the painstaking work involved has been done with the different backgrounds of dog owners in mind, across all areas of Texas.
“We needed something that could work for everybody, that could work for rural constituents, that could work for urban folks, that wouldn’t unfairly disadvantage one set of pet owners over another set of pet owners . ... And that was a super long process and hundreds and hundreds of conversations with legislators,” Kerby said. “For that reason, we are very attached to that language because we know from all these sessions and all these conversations what really is a good fit in cleaning up the loopholes in the current code to make dogs tethered outdoors safe in Texas.”
Another major provision Kerby said the Texas Humane Legislative Network has been pushing for the bill is striking the use of chains.
Chained dogs often experience damage to their physical and psychological well-being, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Heavy chains often become embedded into a dog’s neck and place them at high risk of entanglement or strangulation. Chained dogs are often found confined to debrisfilled areas that are contaminated with urine and feces that they are forced to stand or walk in, and owners who chain their dogs are more likely to not provide veterinary care.
There is ample evidence that shows chained dogs become more aggressive, fearful and territorial over time and often become a public safety hazard, particularly to young children who wander into yards, Kerby said.
“That has tragically happened way too many times in Texas, where small children were mauled or even killed by dogs who live their whole lives on chains,” Kerby said.
Rules on restraint
In addition to the chain ban and eliminating the 24hour waiting period, SB 474 aims to ensure dogs who are restrained outside are provided with “adequate shelter,” which Lucio defines as access to food and water and being able to avoid feces, urine, rain and direct sunlight.
Lucio said he is working with the governor’s office to clarify language around four main components in the new legislation, which was refiled Monday as SB 5: how to define adequate shelter, the length of a restraint, time in an open-bed truck and tailoring a dog’s collar.
Lucio and Kerby are optimistic the bill will be passed but are wary of the tedious journey it has taken so far.
“This second bite of the apple, we got to get it right,” Kerby said. “It’s all hands on deck. This is the moment this has to get done.”