A group that spent years working with Texas lawmakers to pass a new animal cruelty bill in the Texas Legislature plans to continue advocating for the provisions it contained after it was vetoed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
The Governor issued a veto of the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act, S.B. 474, on Monday. The move caused the phrase " #AbbottHatesDogs" to trend on social media.
"It would ensure that dogs have access to drinkable water...it would also prevent exposure to extreme weather," said Shelby Bobosky, Executive Director of the Texas Humane Legislation Network. The bill would have also banned the use of heavy chains as outdoor restraints for dogs and eliminated a provision of the current law that requires police officers or sheriff's deputies to wait 24 hours before removing animals that are being kept in unsafe conditions.
"For example, during the terrible winter storm in February when dogs were left out freezing without any shelter, they could have immediately removed those dogs versus having to wait for 24 hours," said Bobosky.
The legislation passed both the Texas House and Texas Senate this spring with support from both Republicans and Democrats. Bobosky says that was due to years of work behind the scenes to address questions and concerns raised by lawmakers.
"After six years of working on carefully negotiated compromises with rural lawmakers, urban lawmakers, law enforcement, animal control officers throughout the state...we were feeling so confident," she said. "We felt pretty blindsided by this veto. But we will never give up on trying to protect dogs that permanently live outside and provide them the basics: water, shelter and a proper restraint."
In making his veto announcement, Governor Abbott issued a written statement that "Texas is no place for this kind of micro-managing and over-criminalization". S.B. 474 was not necessary, he wrote, because the state already has laws on the books prohibiting "true animal cruelty".
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