By Combs                                              H.B. No. 1562
       74R3788 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to authorizing the owner of livestock to protect that
    1-3  livestock from certain dangerous animals.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 42.09, Penal Code, is amended by adding
    1-6  Subsection (f) to read as follows:
    1-7        (f)  It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (a)(5)
    1-8  that regardless of where the person engaged in the conduct, the
    1-9  person killed or injured the animal after the animal was discovered
   1-10  on the person's property in the act of or immediately after
   1-11  injuring or killing an animal listed in Subsection (e) and that
   1-12  before that discovery:
   1-13              (1)  the animal had been discovered on the person's
   1-14  property in the act of or immediately after injuring or killing an
   1-15  animal listed in Subsection (e); and
   1-16              (2)  the person notified the animal's owner of the
   1-17  discovery described by Subdivision (1) and requested that the owner
   1-18  keep the animal off of the person's property.
   1-19        SECTION 2.  The defense provided by Section 42.09(f), Penal
   1-20  Code, as added by this Act, is available to a defendant charged
   1-21  with the commission of an offense under Section 42.09 committed
   1-22  before, on, or after the effective date of this Act, except that a
   1-23  final conviction for an offense under Section 42.09 that exists on
   1-24  the effective date of this Act is unaffected by this Act.
    2-1        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    2-2        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.