85R12588 JG-D
By: Price H.B. No. 2805
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.