Posted on May 5, 2010 by Alison Rowe

Compilation of Texas Stock Laws

**List of available counties updated 8-27-10**

I have recently, with the help of my assistant (and soon-to-be law student) Christina Heddesheimer, taken on the monumental task of compiling the local stock laws for all 254 Texas counties. 

Oh, and when I say with the "help" of Christina, I mean that Christina is doing all of heavy lifting and all of the county-by-county research.  Her work has been invaluable.

We are so grateful to the many people who have taken time to assist us in this research project in over 100 Texas counties so far.  Thank you, Texas county officials!

This project takes extraordinary persistence, hours and hours of time, and lots of patience.  And money.  It's probably for these reasons that no other lawyer or organization has ever, in the history of the State of Texas, compiled all the stock laws in one place.  Until now....

So, why is this project so monumental, you ask?  As discussed in an earlier post, the default rule in Texas is that livestock may roam freely in Texas ("open range") .  The only state-wide exception is a prohibition of open range grazing/roaming on interstate and state highway right-of-ways.  Pursuant to the Texas Agriculture Code and its predecessors, counties have the right to hold one or more elections to restrict the free roaming of livestock.  The individual elections can include one or more species (such as cattle, horses, mules, hogs, sheep and goats), and the elections can be held for the whole county or part(s) of each county.

These laws are very difficult to find as they are only located in the commissioner's court minutes of each individual county.  The dates these laws were enacted range from the 1800s to now.

The stock laws are important because they often determine who is liable when, for example, a motorist collides with a horse on a farm-to-market road, or a horse gets loose and destroys someone else's property.

So far, we have obtained the stock law status of 212 Texas counties, and we continue to receive more updates daily.  We will periodically post updates as we gather more information from more counties.  For each of the following counties, we currently either have a copy of the stock law, or we have a confirmation that the county is open range:

 

  

1.     Andrews

2.     Angelina

3.     Aransas

4.     Archer

5.     Armstrong

6.     Atascosa

7.     Austin

8.     Bailey

9.     Bandera

10.   Bastrop

11.   Bell

12.   Bexar

13.   Blanco

14.   Bosque

15.   Bowie

16.   Brazoria

17.   Brewster

18.   Briscoe

19.   Brown

20.   Burleson

21.   Burnet

22.   Caldwell

23.   Calhoun

24.   Callahan

25.   Cameron

26.   Camp

27.   Carson

28.   Castro

29.   Cherokee

30.   Childress

31.   Clay

32.   Cochran

33.   Coke

34.   Coleman

35.   Collin

36.   Collingsworth

37.   Comal

38.   Comanche

39.   Cooke

40.   Coryell

41.   Cottle

42.   Crockett

43.   Dallam

44.   Dallas

45.   Dawson

46.   Deaf Smith

47.   Delta

48.   Denton

49.   DeWitt

50.   Dickens

51.   Dimmit

52.   Duval

53.   Eastland

54.   Ector

55.   Ellis

56.   Erath

57.   Fayette

58.   Fisher

59.   Floyd

60.   Foard

61.   Fort Bend

62.   Franklin

63.   Freestone

64.   Frio

65.   Galveston

66.   Gaines

67.   Garza

68.   Gillespie

69.   Glasscock

70.   Gonzales

71.   Gray

72.   Grayson

73.   Gregg

74.   Grimes

75.   Guadalupe

76.   Hale

77.   Hall

78.   Hamilton

79.   Hansford

80.   Hardeman

81.   Hardin

82.   Harris

83.   Harrison

84.   Hartley

85.   Haskell

86.   Hays

87.   Hemphill

88.   Henderson

89.   Hill

90.   Hockley

91.   Hood

92.   Hopkins

93.   Houston

94.   Howard

95.   Hunt

96.   Hutchinson

97.   Irion

98.   Jack

99.   Jasper

100.Jeff Davis

101.Jefferson

102.Jim Hogg

103.Jim Wells

104.Johnson

105.Jones

106.Kaufman

107.Karnes

108.Kendall

109.Kent

110.Kerr

111.Kimble

112.King

113.Kinney

114.Kleberg

115.Lamar

116.Lamb

117.Lampasas

118.La Salle

119.Lee

120.Leon

121.Liberty

122.Limestone

123.Llano

124.Loving

125.Lubbock

126.Lynn

127.Madison

128.Marion

129.Martin

130.Mason

131.Matagorda

132.Maverick

133.McCulloch

134.McLennan

135.McMullen

136.Medina

137.Menard

138.Midland

139.Milam

140.Mills

141.Montague

142.Montgomery

143.Moore

144.Nacogdoches

145.Navarro

146.Newton

147.Nolan

148.Ochiltree

149.Oldham

150.Orange

151.Palo Pinto

152.Panola

153.Parker

154.Parmer

155.Pecos

156.Polk

157.Potter

158.Presidio

159.Rains

160.Randall

161.Reagan

162.Real

163.Red River

164.Reeves

165.Roberts

166.Runnels

167.Rusk

168.Sabine

169.San Jacinto

170.San Patricio

171.San Saba

172.Schleicher

173.Scurry

174.Shackelford

175.Shelby

176.Sherman

177.Smith

178.Somervell

179.Stephens

180.Sterling

181.Stonewall

182.Sutton

183.Swisher

184.Tarrant

185.Taylor

186.Terrell

187.Terry

188.Tom Green

189.Travis

190.Tyler

191.Upshur

192.Upton

193.Uvalde

194.Val Verde

195.Van Zandt

196.Victoria

197.Waller

198.Walker

199.Ward

200.Washington

201.Wharton

202.Wheeler

203.Wichita

204.Wilbarger

205.Williamson

206.Wilson

207.Winkler

208.Wise

209.Wood

210.Yoakum

211.Young

212.Zavala

 

If you would like a copy of one or more stock laws in our compilation, please call my office at 979-691-7333.  We charge a small fee for copies due to the time-intensive and costly nature of this research project.  Once we compile information for all counties, we will publish a book complete with a copy of each law with annotations.

 
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Posted on May 21, 2008 by Alison Rowe

Is a Horseowner Liable for Damages if a Horse Gets Loose?

A gentleman recently told me that his stallion had gotten loose, gone onto his neighbor's unfenced property, and "worried" the neighbor's mares.  The neighbor shot at the stallion with a shotgun, and stated that the police told him he was justified in doing so because the stallion was "trespassing on his property."

Is the stallion owner liable for property damage or injury to persons caused by his stallion?  Generally speaking, not unless the stallion owner knowingly let the stallion roam free.

Important to this analysis is that Texas is, generally speaking, still an open range state.  That is--livestock may still roam at large in Texas with two exceptions:

  1. Public highways.  The Texas Agriculture Code states "[a] person who owns or has responsibility for the control of a horse, mule, donkey, cow, bull, steer, hog, sheep, or goat may not knowingly permit the animal to traverse or roam at large, unattended, on the right-of-way of a highway." Tex. Agric. Code § 143.102 (Vernon 2004)(emphasis added). The statute defines a "highway" as "a U.S. highway or a state highway in this state, but does not include a numbered farm-to-market road." Id. at § 143.101. Therefore, U.S. and state highways in Texas are effectively considered closed ranged. Conversely, the 40,000-plus miles of farm-to-market roads in Texas are unaffected by this statute.
  2. Stock Law Counties or Areas.  Chapter 143 of the Agriculture Code permits local elections to adopt a law (a.k.a. "stock law"), where a person may not permit any animal of the class mentioned in the proclamation to run at large in the county or area in which the election was held. A typical stock law will prohibit horses, mules, donkeys, sheep, goats, and cattle from running at large.

    As expressly provided by the Code, some counties in Texas have enacted county wide stock laws, yet others have chosen to elect stock laws only in certain precincts or areas within said county. Unfortunately, there is no statewide index that traces the counties or areas where stock laws have been passed.

Rather, the results of local stock law elections are recorded in the minutes of the county commissioners court for that specific county. Thus, an attorney may have to review several decades worth of commissioners court records in order to locate the results of a stock law election. However, many county clerks, especially those in predominately rural counties, are often able to direct individuals to the applicable stock law or laws for their respective counties. Another quick resource on whether or not you are in a stock law area is the county attorney for your county.

Going back to our fact pattern, even if our friend's stallion had escaped in a stock law county or area, our friend would not necessarily be liable for any injury or property damage caused by his stallion.  "A violation of the statute requiring restraint of animals in stock law counties does not create a prima facie case for recovery so as to require the owner of livestock to prove an excuse or explanation for the animals' escape." Davis v. Massey, 324 S.W.2d 242, 243 (Tex. Civ. App.--Waco 1959, no writ).  In other words, a knowing violation of the statute or an actual showing of negligence on the part of the stallion owner will generally be required for liability to attach.  Also, in an open range counties, farmers and other landowners bear the responsibility to exclude (fence out) livestock. Thus, if the neighbor's property was in an open range area, keeping the stallion out would have been the neighbor's responsibility.

Can the neighbor shoot the stallion if he is "trespassing"?  Probably not.  In How to Deal With Trespassers On Your Property, we touched on when a landowner may shoot at a person who is trespassing.  Lethal force against people is allowed in certain limited circumstances, such as the prevention of arson, burglary, or theft.  There is not any such thing as criminal trespass on the part of a horse that would give occasion to use lethal force, because horses cannot know they are trespassing and thus cannot commit "trespass".  Secondly, while the Texas Health & Safety Code allows landowners to shoot or kill dogs or coyotes that are posing a danger to their livestock, that statute does not apply to non-canine species.
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