Texas Working Dog Preservation Bill Proposed

[catchrcall]

The Lonestar Working Dog Association has proposed a bill that will protect working dogs from laws, present and future, will take away our rights to keep, breed, and work our dogs as we see fit. Currently we have three reps interested in the bill, Rep. White, Rep Aycock, and Rep. Guillen but it is not sponsored yet. If you are in favor of this bill, we ask that you please contact your reps and let them know about it. We are close to getting this sponsored and will need all the help we can get in order to get this bill pushed through.

Right now, Guillen, Aycock and White are interested in sponsoring this bill. Let's let them know how much this matters to us - if they hear nothing, they will DO nothing!

Working Dog Preservation Bill

By:________________________ ____.B. NO. ________
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT
relating to the classification and care of working dogs

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1.
DEFINITION. In this Act a “working dog” means:
(1) A dog used primarily for the purpose of driving, tending, locating,
working, or protecting stock to include domestic and feral stock, swine and exotics;
(2) A dog used for police, military, substance detection, protection, search, rescue or recovery purposes;
(3) A dog used as a service, assistance or therapy animal;
(4) A dog used to locate, retrieve, or capture an animal, or used in the
recovery of wounded or dead animals;
(5) A dog that is in training for any of the above purposes;
(6) The definition does not rely upon where the dog lives, or it’s breed,
but its primary use;

SECTION 2.
A dog that is defined as a “working dog” is not considered a
pet and will be exempt from laws intended to apply to pets.

(2) A working dog will not be subject to laws:
(a) Requiring mandatory spay or neuter;
(b) Restricting or requiring permits for the number of animals an owner
may possess, regardless of reproductive status;
(c) Restricting how the dog may be housed;
(d) Requiring additional insurance due to weight, breed, sex, or
reproductive status is of the dog;
(e) Restricting breeds that may be kept by the owner.

SECTION 3. Section 42.09, Penal Code applies to the care of working dogs.

SECTION 4. This act takes effect September 1, 2011.

[catchrcall]

Just an update. It looks like we have found a sponsor for our bill, and it should be getting filed any day now. We have a lobbyist working on our behalf that comes from the working dog community (pointers) and is very supportive of our cause. I'll post back up when we have the number.

[Shimmie]

i'm new to the classification of dogs as working. looking at "working dogs" in this link i don't see that hunting dogs fall into this category. they are in the sporting group.

http://www.akc.org/breeds/working_group.cfm

we've one type of mastiff listed in that group. if anyone can think of a type of work it could do please let me know. it is a 110lb tub of fence-wrecking gooh.