By Gutierrez                                           H.B. No. 669
       74R3716 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the quarantine of rabid animals.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 826.042, Health and Safety Code, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 826.042.  QUARANTINE OF ANIMALS.  (a)  The board shall
    1-7  adopt rules governing the testing of quarantined animals and the
    1-8  procedure for and method of quarantine.  The rules must provide for
    1-9  a quarantine period of not less than 15 days and not more than 30
   1-10  days.
   1-11        (b)  The local health authority shall quarantine or test in
   1-12  accordance with board rules any animal that the local health
   1-13  authority has probable cause to believe may be rabid or may have
   1-14  exposed a person to rabies.
   1-15        (c)  An owner shall submit for quarantine an animal that:
   1-16              (1)  is reported to be rabid or to have exposed an
   1-17  individual to rabies; or
   1-18              (2)  the owner knows or suspects is rabid or has <to
   1-19  have> exposed an individual to rabies.
   1-20        (d)  A veterinarian shall submit for quarantine an animal
   1-21  that:
   1-22              (1)  is in the possession of the veterinarian; and
   1-23              (2)  the veterinarian knows or suspects is rabid or has
   1-24  exposed an individual to rabies.
    2-1        (e)  The owner or veterinarian shall submit the animal to the
    2-2  local health authority of the county or municipality in which the
    2-3  exposure occurs.
    2-4        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    2-5        SECTION 3.  The Texas Board of Health shall adopt rules as
    2-6  required by Section 826.042(a), Health and Safety Code, as amended
    2-7  by this Act, as soon as possible, but not later than January 1,
    2-8  1996.
    2-9        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-10  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-11  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-12  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-13  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.