Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed an animal cruelty bill Monday that he said would have created “over-criminalization.”
Senate Bill 474 would have added restrictions on how pet owners could restrain their dogs when left unattended.
“Texans love their dogs, so it is no surprise that our statutes already protect them by outlawing true animal cruelty,” Abbott said in a statement. “Yet Senate Bill 474 would compel every dog owner, on pain of criminal penalties, to monitor things like the tailoring of the dog’s collar, the time the dog spends in the bed of a truck, and the ratio of tether-to-dog length, as measured from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail. Texas is no place for this kind of micro-managing and over-criminalization.”
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The bill would have made it illegal for dog owners to restrain their dogs with a chain when leaving them unattended outdoors and would have made stricter requirements on the length of any tether used. Owners also would have had to provide proper shelter from the sun and potable water for their pets.
Violations would have been considered class-C misdemeanors.
The hashtag #AbbottHatesDogs trended on Twitter after Abbott’s announcement. Abbott owns two golden retrievers named Peaches and Pancake.
Supporters of the bill argued previous legislation on the matter wasn’t written clearly enough to be usable by law enforcement.
“In 2007, a bill was passed that laid out how a person can tether their dog unattended outdoors,” said Stacy Sutton Kerby, director of government relations at the Texas Humane Legislation Network. “Unfortunately, the language in that [statute] that currently exists in the Texas health and safety code is so vague that it was unenforceable for law enforcement and animal control officers. In addition, it included a provision that said a pet owner must be given a 24-hour warning before an officer could help a dog in distress.”
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The legislation passed the Senate 28-3 and the House 83-32.
“This bill has been filed multiple times over multiple sessions,” said Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier. “It would either get a point of order, or it would get killed on a calendar, so this year we were able to get it to the finish line. I plan on bringing this legislation back. I truly believe what it accomplishes, and we worked so hard for it, and this will come back.”
