Houston Chronicle by Monique Welch 6/21/2021
Gov. Abbott vetoes bipartisan anti dog-chain bill. Twitter responds with #AbbottHatesDogs.
Texans love their dogs, no doubt. But now, some Texans are calling out Gov. Greg Abbott, alleging that he does not.
The Republican governor vetoed a bill Friday to expand animal cruelty laws and make the unlawful restraint of a dog a criminal offense.
Senate Bill 474, better known as the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act, would provide greater protections for dogs, including banning the use of heavy chains to tether dogs.
Abbott, who is a dog dad to a golden retriever, Pancake, sees nothing wrong with the current law and said state statutes already protect dogs by "outlawing true animal cruelty."
"Senate Bill 474 would compel every dog owner, on pain of criminal penalties, to monitor things like the tailoring of the dog’s collar, the time the dog spends in the bed of a truck, and the ratio of tether-to-dog length, as measured from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail," he said in a release.
"Texas is no place for this kind of micro-managing and over-criminalization."
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Abbott-vetoes-animal-cruelty-bill-Twitter-responds-16262481.php
