Canine Encounters.

Two groups of definitions matter here. The first comes from Chapter 9 of the Penal Code, because an officer who shoots a dog is using deadly force and the justification rules apply. Deadly force is force intended or known by the actor to cause death or serious bodily injury, or capable of causing it in the manner of its use.

Chapter 9 carries two warnings with it. If you are justified in using force but recklessly injure or kill an innocent third person while doing it, the justification does not protect you in a prosecution for that injury. And a justification under Chapter 9 does not take away any remedy a person may have in a civil suit.

The second group comes from Penal Code 42.092, cruelty to nonlivestock animals. Note what counts as an “animal” under that section. It covers domesticated creatures, stray or feral cats and dogs, and wild creatures that were previously captured. It does not cover an uncaptured wild creature or a livestock animal. Livestock have their own section, 42.09.

Penal Code 42.092 lists nine ways to commit cruelty to a nonlivestock animal. The mental state is broad. A person commits the offense by acting intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence.

The nine acts are: torturing an animal or killing or seriously injuring it in a cruel manner; killing, poisoning or seriously injuring an animal without the owner’s effective consent; unreasonably failing to provide necessary food, water, care or shelter for an animal in the person’s custody; unreasonably abandoning an animal in the person’s custody; transporting or confining an animal in a cruel manner; causing bodily injury to an animal without the owner’s effective consent; causing one animal to fight another when either animal is not a dog; using a live animal as a lure in dog race training or dog coursing on a racetrack; and seriously overworking an animal.

Notice that the neglect offenses apply to a person with custody, and custody does not depend on ownership. Notice also that the two “without the owner’s effective consent” offenses are about someone else’s animal.

The punishment depends on which of the nine acts was committed. Neglect, abandonment, cruel transport or confinement, bodily injury without consent, and overworking are Class A misdemeanors. They become state jail felonies if the person has two prior convictions under 42.092, two under 42.09, or one under each.

Torture, cruel killing, and killing, poisoning or seriously injuring without the owner’s consent are third degree felonies. They become second degree felonies with a prior conviction for one of the serious forms of the offense or under 42.09. Animal fighting and using a live lure are state jail felonies, and third degree felonies with a prior conviction under 42.092 or 42.09.

There are several defenses. It is a defense to any charge under the section that the actor reasonably feared bodily injury from a dangerous wild animal as defined in Health and Safety Code 822.101, or was engaged in bona fide scientific research. A veterinarian, or a person assisting one, has a defense to alleged criminal negligence for conduct in the actual discharge of their duties.

The defense that matters most to you is in subsection (e). For the offenses of killing or injuring an animal without the owner’s consent, it is a defense that the person acted within the scope of employment as a public servant. The same subsection protects a person who finds the animal on their property injuring or killing their livestock or damaging their crops and kills or injures it at the time of that discovery. Releasing an animal under a Trap-Neuter-Return Program is a defense to abandonment.

Lawful fishing, hunting, trapping, wildlife management and depredation control, and animal husbandry or agriculture practices involving livestock are exceptions to the section. The section does not create a civil cause of action.