Bill Text: TX HB535 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Relating to allowing a deer breeder to transfer and sell for processing as venison certain breeder deer.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-04-15 - Committee report sent to Calendars [HB535 Detail]

Download: Texas-2011-HB535-Comm_Sub.html

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82R18510 SLB-F
By: Phillips H.B. No. 535
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 535:
By: Elkins C.S.H.B. No. 535

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to allowing a deer breeder to transfer and sell for
processing as venison certain breeder deer.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 43.357(a) and (b), Parks and Wildlife
Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) The holder of a valid deer breeder's permit may:
(1) engage in the business of breeding breeder deer in
the immediate locality for which the permit was issued; [and]
(2) sell, transfer to another person, or hold in
captivity live breeder deer for the purpose of propagation or sale;
and
(3) transfer and sell live breeder deer not needed for
propagation for the purpose of processing and sale as venison.
(b) The commission may make regulations governing:
(1) the possession of breeder deer held under the
authority of this subchapter;
(2) the recapture of lawfully possessed breeder deer
that have escaped from the facility of a deer breeder;
(3) permit applications and fees;
(4) reporting requirements;
(5) procedures and requirements for the purchase,
transfer, sale, or shipment of breeder deer;
(6) the endorsement of a deer breeder facility by a
certified wildlife biologist;
(7) the number of breeder deer that a deer breeder may
possess; [and]
(8) the dates for which a deer breeder permit is valid;
and
(9) procedures for the identification, transfer, and
sale of live breeder deer not needed for propagation for the purpose
of processing and sale as venison.
SECTION 2. Section 43.364, Parks and Wildlife Code, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 43.364. USE OF BREEDER DEER. (a) Except as provided by
Subsection (b), breeder [Breeder] deer may be purchased, sold,
transferred, or received in this state only for the purposes of
liberation or holding for propagation. All breeder deer and
increase from breeder deer are under the full force of the laws of
this state pertaining to deer, and those breeder deer may be held in
captivity for propagation in this state only after a deer breeder's
permit is issued by the department under this subchapter.
(b) Live breeder deer not needed for propagation may be
transferred, processed, and sold as venison only in accordance with
Section 43.357 and either:
(1) Chapter 433, Health and Safety Code, and rules
adopted under that chapter; or
(2) 9 C.F.R. Part 352, as authorized by the federal
Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. Section 1621 et seq.).
SECTION 3. Section 433.003(5), Health and Safety Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(5) "Exotic animal" means:
(A) a member of a species of game not indigenous
to this state, including an axis deer, nilga antelope, red sheep, or
other cloven-hooved ruminant animal; or
(B) a breeder deer as defined by Section 43.351,
Parks and Wildlife Code, that the Parks and Wildlife Department has
identified for the purpose of processing and sale as venison.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.