By Uher                                          H.B. No. 968

      75R1783 DD-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the care and treatment of game fowl.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 42.09, Penal Code, is amended by adding

 1-5     Subsections (g) and (h) to read as follows:

 1-6           (g)  It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (a)(1)

 1-7     that the actor's conduct constituted  trimming a comb or wattle or

 1-8     altering  a spur of a game rooster and that the conduct was done in

 1-9     accordance with the standards promulgated by the American Poultry

1-10     Association, as those standards existed on January 1, 1997.

1-11           (h)  It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (a)(1),

1-12     (a)(2), or (a)(4) that the animal is a game fowl, that the actor

1-13     owns, raises, or cares for the game fowl for the purpose of

1-14     showing, selling, or transporting the game fowl, and that the

1-15     treatment of the game fowl for which the actor is being prosecuted

1-16     was consistent with the standards promulgated by the American

1-17     Poultry Association, as those standards existed on January 1, 1997.

1-18           SECTION 2.  Section 821.021, Health and Safety Code, is

1-19     amended to read as follows:

1-20           Sec. 821.021.  DEFINITION.  (a)  In this subchapter, "cruelly

1-21     treated" includes tortured, seriously overworked, unreasonably

1-22     abandoned, unreasonably deprived of necessary food, care, or

1-23     shelter, cruelly confined, or caused to fight with another animal.

1-24           (b)  For the purposes of this subchapter, an animal is not

 2-1     "cruelly treated" if the animal is treated in a manner that is

 2-2     consistent with the standards promulgated by the American Poultry

 2-3     Association, as those standards existed on January 1, 1997.

 2-4           SECTION 3.  The defenses added by this Act to Section 42.09,

 2-5     Penal Code, are available to a person regardless of when the

 2-6     offense was committed but only for trials commencing on or after

 2-7     the effective date of this Act.

 2-8           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-13     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-14     passage, and it is so enacted.