BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 921

By: Rosenthal

Public Health

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

It has been suggested that requiring animal shelters and releasing agencies to prepare and maintain records on the intake and disposition of animals and to make the records available to the public will help increase transparency between applicable constituents and municipalities. H.B. 921 seeks to address this issue by providing for intake and disposition records for animal shelters and releasing agencies.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 921 amends the Health and Safety Code to require each animal shelter, including a shelter operated by a municipality, and releasing agency operated in Texas to prepare and maintain records on the intake and disposition of animals in the care of the shelter or agency, including the total number of live animals taken in by the shelter or agency, the reason an animal was taken in by the shelter or agency, the number of animals at the shelter or agency on the last day of each month, and the disposition of each animal taken in by the shelter or agency.

H.B. 921 requires an animal shelter or releasing agency to prepare such records on a monthly basis and to maintain the records until at least the third anniversary of the date the record was prepared. The bill requires an animal shelter or releasing agency to make the records available to the public by posting the records on the shelter's, municipality's, or agency's website or, for a shelter, municipality, or agency that does not have a website, by making the records available in a form regularly maintained by the shelter, municipality, or agency for inspection and copying.

H.B. 921 replaces the authorization for the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission to require each person operating an animal shelter to keep records of the date and disposition of animals in its custody with a requirement for the executive commissioner to require each person operating an animal shelter or releasing agency to keep records as required by the bill's provisions.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.