HBA-JRA H.B. 3243 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3243 By: Green Agriculture & Livestock 4/7/1999 Introduced 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 them. Current law also requires that the person kill or injure the threatening animal at the time of discovery in order to claim a defense to prosecution. This may not provide the person adequate or reasonable means to protect the person's livestock. 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 and removes the requirement that the person kill or injure the animal at the time of the discovery. 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. Deletes the provision that the person killed or injured the animal at the time of the discovery. Makes conforming changes. SECTION 2. Makes application of this Act prospective. SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 4. Emergency clause.