| |
| |
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
|
|
relating to the payment of costs for a cruelly treated animal |
|
|
abandoned by a tenant. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
SECTION 1. Section 821.023(e), Health and Safety Code, is |
|
|
amended to read as follows: |
|
|
(e) After a court finds that an animal's owner has cruelly |
|
|
treated the animal, the court shall order the owner to pay all |
|
|
[court] costs to the appropriate party, including: |
|
|
(1) the administrative costs of: |
|
|
(A) investigation; |
|
|
(B) expert witnesses; and |
|
|
(C) conducting any public sale ordered by the |
|
|
court; [and] |
|
|
(2) the costs incurred by a municipal or county animal |
|
|
shelter or a nonprofit animal welfare organization in: |
|
|
(A) housing and caring for the animal during its |
|
|
impoundment; and |
|
|
(B) humanely destroying the animal if |
|
|
destruction is ordered by the court; and |
|
|
(3) any costs incurred by a landlord or landowner in |
|
|
housing and caring for an animal unreasonably abandoned by a tenant |
|
|
after the tenant's eviction. |
|
|
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies to |
|
|
costs incurred by a landlord or landowner on or after the effective |
|
|
date of this Act. |
|
|
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017. |