HBA-JRA C.S.H.B. 3243 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 3243 By: Green Agriculture & Livestock 4/16/1999 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, exotic livestock and exotic fowl are not included in the list of animals which an owner can protect by killing or injuring an animal that kills or injures the owner's exotic livestock or fowl. C.S.H.B. 3243 provides that killing or injuring an animal is defensible if that animal injures or kills a person's livestock or exotic fowl. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 42.09(e), Penal Code, to provide that it is a defense to prosecution for killing, injuring, or administering poison to an animal, other than cattle, horses, sheep, swine, or goats, belonging to another without legal authority or the owner's effective consent, that the animal was discovered on the person's property in the act of or immediately after injuring or killing the person's exotic livestock or exotic fowl as defined by Section 142.001 (Definitions), Agriculture Code. SECTION 2. Makes application of this Act prospective. SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 4. Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE The substitute modifies the original in SECTION 1 by restoring the language of the statute that in order to be a defense to prosecution, a person must kill or injure an animal, which at the time of the discovery was in the act or immediately after the act of killing the person's own livestock, exotic livestock, or exotic fowl.