TX-RPOA E-News
>From Responsible Pet Owners Alliance
Texas Outreach
March 24, 2019
At the present time, RPOA is studying 50 animal bills filed at the state
legislature this session to determine our positions. With our ONE lobbyist,
we’re up against 12 lobbyists hired by the Texas “Animal Rights Brigade”
(including Texas Humane Legislation Network, Humane Society of the US,
Animal Legal Defense Fund and possibly others)! Their lobbyists have
certainly earned their salary this session.
It will be up to Corpus Christi dog owners to convince Corpus Christi City
Council that this ordinance should be defeated or amended. Our attorneys
offer this opinion: “This law is inherently unfair because it punishes
responsible dog owners whose dog simply acts on instinct or prey drive.
There are no provisions that exonerate dogs that are properly restrained as
that is defined in City law.”
Re: Proposed Corpus Christi, Texas, “Vicious Dog Ordinance.”
TINY URL: https://tinyurl.com/y63l7clb
OR:
https://www.caller.com/story/news/local/2019/03/18/proposed-corpus-christi-o
rdinance-may-ban-vicious-dogs-city/3202489002/
Per the article, it is one strike and you’re out with a fine from $50 up to
$2000 plus court costs. “An owner or handler is prohibited from keeping the
dog in the city if the dog has killed or seriously injured a dog, cat, fowl,
livestock or other domestic pet at least once, the ordinance states.” The
first reading was this past Tuesday (unless it got bumped). Also per the
article, it is unknown if a dog deemed vicious will get a hearing.
AND MORE …
Sec. 6-163 – Vicious Dog. (a) An owner or handler shall take reasonable
measures to protect the public from accidental contact with a dog that, by
nature or by training, is dangerous to people or other animals. (b) An owner
or handler may not keep or permit a dog to be in the city if the dog has on
at least one occasion: (A) killed another dog, cat, or other domestic pet,
fowl, or livestock; or (B) seriously injured another animal to an extent
that an attending veterinarian has presented an affidavit to the animal care
services manager stating that the injured animal’s life was seriously
endangered or taken by the dog, or that the dog caused a significant
permanent impairment of the injured animal’s basic bodily functions or
mobility; provided, however, that when the incident occurred, the injured
animal was not in violation of a provision of this Chapter relating to the
confinement or physical control of animals in the City.
MORE YET:
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In the City of Corpus Christi, dogs must be restrained by leash, in a fenced
yard, properly tethered or in a house. Cats, however, may roam free unless
they are not spayed or neutered. The problem with this ordinance is that
your dog could be minding his own business in a properly fenced yard, and a
free roaming cat could come into the yard and be killed or seriously injured
by the dog. All kinds of dogs will go after a cat — small and large dogs
alike. The effect of this law is that your dog could be banned from the City
for going after a cat in your own yard. Similarly, if someone’s chicken or a
feral cat comes into your backyard and your dog goes after it and kills or
injures it, your dog may be banished from the City.
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