Texas Seizes Hoarded, Cruelly Treated Animals By Court Order

A peace officer or animal-control officer with reason to believe an animal is being cruelly treated applies to a justice, municipal, or magistrate court for a seizure warrant (Health & Safety Code 821.022). On probable cause the court seizes the animal and sets a hearing within 10 calendar days. "Cruelly treated" includes being unreasonably deprived of necessary food, care, or shelter or cruelly confined (821.021): the conditions that define hoarding cases. If the court finds cruelty, the owner is divested of ownership and the animals go to a shelter or nonprofit, are auctioned, or are humanely destroyed (821.023), and the owner pays investigation, housing, and expert-witness costs. Criminal cruelty is charged separately under Penal Code 42.092.

Failing unreasonably to provide necessary food, water, care, or shelter is a Class A misdemeanor under Penal Code 42.092; torturing an animal is a state jail felony, rising to a third-degree felony on repeat convictions. The owner also loses the animals and pays all court and impoundment costs.