{"topic_id":"animal_welfare_law_tx_hsc_821","category":"animal-welfare-law","context":"---\ntopic_id: animal_welfare_law_tx_hsc_821\ncategory: animal-welfare-law\ntitle: \"Texas — treatment, anti-cruelty seizure and restraint of animals (Health & Safety Code Chapter 821)\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"Texas Statutes — Health and Safety Code Chapter 821 (Treatment and Disposition of Animals), statutes.capitol.texas.gov, extracted 2026-07-23 via Tokyo relay (Playwright)\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/animal-welfare-law/tx_hsc_821_treatment.txt\ndate_parsed: 2026-07-23\ntokens_estimated: 420\nverification:\n  method: substring_match\n  claims: 6\n  passed: 6\n  date: 2026-07-23\nrecovered: false\npath: animal-welfare-law/tx_hsc_821_treatment/01_tx_hsc_821_treatment.md\n---\n\n# Texas — treatment, anti-cruelty seizure and restraint of animals (Health & Safety Code Chapter 821)\n\nSource: Texas Statutes — Health and Safety Code Chapter 821 (Treatment and Disposition of Animals), statutes.capitol.texas.gov, extracted 2026-07-23. First-hand Texas statute text; C1 substring-verified against `pdf-raw/animal-welfare-law/tx_hsc_821_treatment.txt`. This is the **state statutory treatment/anti-cruelty framework** (the LAW), distinct from Penal Code cruelty offences and from local ordinances.\n\nChapter 821 governs how animals must be treated and how cruelly treated animals are seized and disposed of. Its scope is broad: every living nonhuman creature is an \"animal\" for the subchapter. The anti-cruelty trigger is the definition in Sec. 821.021(1), which includes within \"cruelly treated\" conduct such as torture, serious overwork, unreasonable abandonment, unreasonable deprivation of necessary food/care/shelter, cruel confinement, causing an animal to fight another, or conduct prohibited by Penal Code Section 21.09. A peace officer or animal-control officer who believes an animal has been or is being cruelly treated \"may apply to a justice court or magistrate\" for seizure (Sec. 821.022).\n\nCare duties are explicit. For impounded animals, \"A person who impounds or causes the impoundment of an animal under state law or municipal ordinance shall supply the animal with sufficient wholesome food and water during its confinement\" (Sec. 821.002). On tethering, \"An owner may not leave a dog outside and unattended by use of a restraint unless the owner provides the dog access to:\" adequate shelter, an area free of standing water and excessive waste, shade, and potable water (Sec. 821.102). Violating the subchapter \"is a Class B misdemeanor\" (Sec. 821.056).\n\nThis topic covers the statutory treatment/care/seizure framework only. Criminal cruelty offences themselves are in the Penal Code (referenced, not restated here). It applies statewide; local ordinances may be compatible and equal to or more stringent than the chapter.\n\nVerbatim C1 claims (each a substring of the source file + this body):\n1. \"CHAPTER 821. TREATMENT AND DISPOSITION OF ANIMALS\"\n2. \"includes every living nonhuman creature.\"\n3. \"includes tortured, seriously overworked, unreasonably abandoned, unreasonably deprived of necessary food, care, or shelter, cruelly confined, caused to fight with another animal, or subjected to conduct prohibited by Section 21.09, Penal Code.\"\n4. \"A person who impounds or causes the impoundment of an animal under state law or municipal ordinance shall supply the animal with sufficient wholesome food and water during its confinement.\"\n5. \"An owner may not leave a dog outside and unattended by use of a restraint unless the owner provides the dog access to:\"\n6. \"A person commits an offense if the person violates this subchapter or a rule adopted under this subchapter.\"\n","sources":[],"tokens_estimated":420,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}