Report Neglect or Abuse
Texans can help stop the worst offenders of animal neglect, animal dumping, and animal abuse by applying existing Texas laws that prohibit these actions and which can make them felonies PLUS new Federal laws now available prohibiting animal cruelty.
“Provides for anyone to enter an animal enclosure without owner consent in order to care for a neglected animal”
“Provides for the seizure of at-risk animals”
- Texas Animal Cruelty Law
- Texas Penal Code
- The Federal Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act
“The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (“PACT Act”). This legislation, signed into law on November 25, 2019, makes extreme acts of animal cruelty federal crimes, punishable by severe fines and up to seven years in prison.”
Under Texas law, animal cruelty includes:
- Torturing an animal
- Failing to provide food, care or shelter
- Abandoning an animal
- Transporting or confining an animal in a cruel manner
- Killing, seriously injuring or poisoning an animal
- Causing an animal to fight with another
- Using a live animal as a lure in a dog race
- Tripping a horse
- Injuring an animal belonging to another person
- Seriously overworking an animal
To help avoid accusations of animal cruelty, remember that it’s illegal in Texas to:
- Abandon Pets. This includes leaving a sick or maimed animal to die, leaving an animal to suffer injury or malnutrition, and abandoning an animal without proper care, food, water, protection, or shelter in a street or public place.
- Treat a Domestic Animal in a Cruel Manner. According to Nolo, “cruel manner” includes a manner that causes or permits unjustified or unwarranted pain or suffering
- Participate in Animal Fights. In Texas, it’s a felony to be involved in cockfighting or dogfighting – including attending or betting on the fights, or participating in the earnings or operation of a dog or cockfighting facility, according to SPCA.
Check back for more helpful links and reporting forms to document your observations of animal neglect or abuse so action can be taken to help the animal.
Texas veterinarian Gone Bad
Take a moment and read the timeline of the case below involving a Texas veterinarian who held the perspective that the only good feral Tom cat is a dead one – and how she acted on that perspective and the consequences for her.
For me the realization that a veterinarian could hold such a perspective, has made me be very likely to get multiple opinions about questionable guidance or euthanasia recommendations from a veterinarian. Just sayin.