TACA's Positions on 2021 Proposed Legislation
In general, TACA opposes unfunded mandates, is a proponent for local control, and feels we should be contacted to discuss any legislation that involves animals, Animal Control Officers, and/or animal shelters prior to it being filed.  If you have any questions about these bills or TACA's position, please feel free to reach out to a Board Member or contact TACA's Legislative Chair.  This page will be updated periodically as more bills are filed.

Proposed Bill   Filed By TACA's Position 
HB 100   Barbara Gervin-Hawkins Neutral – says municipal animal control authority “may” impound aggressive dogs but doesn’t require it
HB 337 Jon Rosenthal HB 337 – unfunded mandate, will essentially require private shelters to be subject to open records requests, forces public shelters to report monthly when some may do quarterly or annual reports
HB 386 Leo Pacheco Support – fixes problems with current state law so that owners must meet minimum standards when tethering dogs unattended
HB 543 James  White Oppose - this bill eliminates local control over the regulation of the possession or use of animals, including dangerous wild animals, simply because the owner claims they are "working animals"
HB 604 Candy Noble Oppose - this is a best practice but many smaller shelters don’t even have scanners, TACA believes it would be better to start a program to provide them first
HB 652 Dennis Paul Oppose – unfunded mandate that would result in an increased workload by requiring a notice be sent to every adopter fifteen days before and after an "epizootic infectious disease" is diagnosed in an animal in the shelter and could lead to fewer adoptions if people mistakenly believe shelter pets are less healthy than those sold by breeders or pet stores
HB 873 Nicole Collier Support – fixes problems with current state law so that owners must meet minimum standards when tethering dogs unattended
HB 1083 Phil King Oppose - this is an issue that needs to be addressed in state law but this bill will create more issues than it fixes for animal shelters as written
HB 1686
 Philip Cortez Oppose - this is an unfunded mandate that takes away local control over an animal issue - individual cities and counties are better able to determine appropriate regulations for their communities instead of having a one-size-fits-all law that will not be appropriate for all jurisdictions

HB 592
SB 227

 Chris Turner
Angela Paxton		 Support – exempts rescue groups from collecting sales tax on pet adoptions
SB 276 Chuy Hinojosa Oppose – this is an unfunded mandate that would require notifications to owners if one "infectious" animal is in the shelter, even if the owned animal never comes in contact with the infectious animal, is not capable of being infected by the illness of the infectious animal, or how minor the affliction since "infectious disease" can include intestinal parasites or fleas – also, no definition of "quarantine" so some could argue it would mean the animal has to be kept in isolation completely away from other animals which is impossible in a shelter environment where space is a major limiting resource and would result in smaller shelters having to euthanize animals since they likely would have no place to quarantine animals
 SB 552 Lois Kolkhorst Oppose - unfunded mandate that will require agencies to allocate resources away from animal care so that they can create a report that has no value to animal control agencies as animal bite issues vary greatly across the state and what one jurisdiction has problems with, such as at-large dogs biting, does not affect others - additionally the information gathered could be used to support future breed specific legislation

Please contact the listed legislators to voice your opposition or support for these bills.

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