The Safe Outdoor Dogs Act

BY KELLEY DWYER

Many of us share our lives with dogs who live out their days in comfort in our homes as beloved family members, but many other Texas dogs are not so lucky. Sadly, however, a significant number of dogs in Texas live primarily, or only, outside. This is not an illegal activity in Texas. The Safe Outdoor Dogs Act does not prohibit the tethering of dogs, and it does not prohibit walking your dog on a leash or temporarily, safely, and humanely restraining your dog while handling another task. Its purpose is to reduce the inhumane conditions of many tethered dogs across the state.

Tethering, in this context, means the act of using something to tie a dog to a fixed object for an extended period of time on your property. Is tethering a dog inhumanely a widespread problem in Texas? In short, yes. Unfortunately, in Texas, too many dogs spend their entire lives outside at the end of a huge heavy rope or chain. Chained dogs are vulnerable to parasitic illnesses, stress from the elements, injuries from constant straining to escape their confinement, and injuries from chains and collars becoming embedded in their skin. Chained dogs can also get tangled in their chains resulting in injury or loss of access to food, water, and shelter. Continuous chaining leads to aggressive behavior in dogs, which can lead to serious injuries to humans, especially children.

Of note, in the City of Austin, leaving a dog unattended on a chain or a tether is prohibited by city law (Austin City Code Section 3-4-2). As a personal aside, I know many dog owners who routinely leave their dogs unattended, but not tethered, in their fenced-in yards believing that they are perfectly safe. While not prohibited in Austin, the practice of leaving a dog unattended is not safe. I have met many dogs as a volunteer at Austin Animal Center, our local municipal shelter for the City of Austin and Travis County, who arrived at the shelter as strays, sometimes sustaining serious injuries after being accidentally let out of their fenced-in yards, or after having dug their way under or jumped their way over their yard’s fence, especially when frightened by fireworks or thunderstorms. I have also heard many Austinites tell of their beloved dogs being stolen from their backyards. A friend’s dog was once stolen from her backyard and even held for ransom! My most risk-averse advice would be to do your best to never leave your dog unattended in your yard.

The 2021 Safe Outdoor Dogs Act is a much-needed update to 2007’s HB1411, the Unlawful Restraint of Dog law. The 2007 statute did add a subchapter D to chapter 821 of the Health & Safety Code, outlawing restraint, but the statute unfortunately did not define or require adequate shelter or access to drinkable water, allowed the use of chain restraints, and required animal protection/control officers and local law enforcement officers to give a 24-hour warning to dog owners before they could enforce compliance. The last provision meant that dogs were left in those inhumane conditions for 24 hours without the owner curing the situation or for enforcement to be permitted to move forward. Unfortunately, under the 2007 revisions, given the weather extremes we face in Texas, many dogs still suffered horribly and died.

The 2021 Safe Outdoor Dogs Act, SB5, supplanted the old subchapter D with subchapter E. This meant that effective Jan. 18, 2022, there were newly added exceptions and definitions to the old law and that some provisions did not carry over. In a nutshell, the 2021 changes lay out the factors that must be present to constitute safe tethering by defining adequate shelter and safe restraint. These factors are very basic. For example, a dog’s collar or harness must fit properly and not impede the dog’s normal breathing or swallowing.

Officer Shannon Sims, holding a 40-pound chain removed from a dog, testifies in support of the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act before the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice. Photo courtesy of the Texas Humane Legislation Network.

The law also has several exceptions. For example, dogs can be restrained on a trolley system; or dog owners with dogs engaged in sporting, recreational, and agricultural activities are permitted to use chains, and the requirements for adequate shelter and properly fitted collars, etc. do not apply to dogs engaged in these activities.

Austin Animal Center has had fencing and doghouse assistance programs in place for many years to help members of our community comply with our local ordinances. Texas Humane Legislation Network has been working with many communities, especially smaller, rural communities, across the state to help residents with their fencing and doghouse needs to comply with the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act. The Austin Bar Animal Law Section is in the preliminary stages of planning to hold an event this year in conjunction with AYLA to help support these efforts to educate our community about the new law and humane treatment of dogs. AL

Footnotes

1. Tex. Health & Safety Code ch. 821 (adding subch. E, Unlawful Restraint of Dog).

2. SB5 was approved in the third called session of the 2021 legislative session. The final bill is available at Tex. Legislature Online (last accessed Mar. 14, 2022), https://capitol. texas.gov/tlodocs/873/billtext/pdf/ SB00005F.pdf#navpanes=0.

Kelley Dwyer is an Austin Bar board member. Dwyer is a solo attorney focused on business transactional law. She is a founding chair and the current chair of the Austin Bar’s Animal Law Section. She spends time fostering, caring for, and volunteering with shelter animals with special medical or behavioral needs.