Compilation of Texas Stock Laws : Equine Law Blog

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Compilation of Texas Stock Laws

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**List of available counties updated 11-15-10** 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 234 Texas counties, and we continue to receive more updates daily. We will periodically post updates as we gather more information from more counties.

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Compilation of Texas Stock Laws : Equine Law Blog

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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. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54.

Anderson Andrews Angelina Aransas Archer Armstrong Atascosa Austin Bailey Bandera Bastrop Baylor Bee Bell Bexar Blanco Borden Bosque Bowie Brazoria Brewster Briscoe Brown Burleson Burnet Caldwell Calhoun Callahan Cameron Camp Carson Castro Cherokee Childress Clay Cochran Coke Coleman Collin Collingsworth Colorado Comal Comanche Concho Cooke Coryell Cottle Crockett Dallam Dallas Dawson Deaf Smith Delta Denton

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Compilation of Texas Stock Laws : Equine Law Blog

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55. DeWitt 56. Dickens 57. Dimmit 58. Duval 59. Eastland 60. Ector 61. Edwards 62. Ellis 63. Erath 64. Fannin 65. Fayette 66. Fisher 67. Floyd 68. Foard 69. Fort Bend 70. Franklin 71. Freestone 72. Frio 73. Galveston 74. Gaines 75. Garza 76. Gillespie 77. Glasscock 78. Gonzales 79. Gray 80. Grayson 81. Gregg 82. Grimes 83. Guadalupe 84. Hale 85. Hall 86. Hamilton 87. Hansford 88. Hardeman 89. Hardin 90. Harris 91. Harrison 92. Hartley 93. Haskell 94. Hays 95. Hemphill 96. Henderson 97. Hill 98. Hockley 99. Hood 100.Hopkins 101.Houston 102.Howard 103.Hunt 104.Hutchinson 105.Irion 106.Jack 107.Jackson 108.Jasper 109.Jeff Davis 110.Jefferson 111.Jim Hogg 112.Jim Wells 113.Johnson 114.Jones 115.Kaufman 116.Karnes 117.Kendall 118.Kenedy 119.Kent 120.Kerr

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Compilation of Texas Stock Laws : Equine Law Blog

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121.Kimble 122.King 123.Kinney 124.Kleberg 125.Lamar 126.Lamb 127.Lampasas 128.La Salle 129.Lavaca 130.Lee 131.Leon 132.Liberty 133.Limestone 134.Lipscomb 135.Live Oak 136.Llano 137.Loving 138.Lubbock 139.Lynn 140.Madison 141.Marion 142.Martin 143.Mason 144.Matagorda 145.Maverick 146.McCulloch 147.McLennan 148.McMullen 149.Medina 150.Menard 151.Midland 152.Milam 153.Mills 154.Mitchell 155.Montague 156.Montgomery 157.Moore 158.Morris 159.Nacogdoches 160.Navarro 161.Newton 162.Nolan 163.Nueces 164.Ochiltree 165.Oldham 166.Orange 167.Palo Pinto 168.Panola 169.Parker 170.Parmer 171.Pecos 172.Polk 173.Potter 174.Presidio 175.Rains 176.Randall 177.Reagan 178.Real 179.Red River 180.Reeves 181.Refugio 182.Roberts 183.Robertson 184.Rockwall 185.Runnels 186.Rusk

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Compilation of Texas Stock Laws : Equine Law Blog

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187.Sabine 188.San Jacinto 189.San Patricio 190.San Saba 191.Schleicher 192.Scurry 193.Shackelford 194.Shelby 195.Sherman 196.Smith 197.Somervell 198.Stephens 199.Sterling 200.Stonewall 201.Sutton 202.Swisher 203.Tarrant 204.Taylor 205.Terrell 206.Terry 207.Throckmorton 208.Tom Green 209.Travis 210.Trinity 211.Tyler 212.Upshur 213.Upton 214.Uvalde 215.Val Verde 216.Van Zandt 217.Victoria 218.Waller 219.Walker 220.Ward 221.Washington 222.Wharton 223.Wheeler 224.Wichita 225.Wilbarger 226.Willacy 227.Williamson 228.Wilson 229.Winkler 230.Wise 231.Wood 232.Yoakum 233.Young 234.Zavala If you would like a copy of one or more stock laws in our compilation, please call 979-229-9718. We charge a fee for copies due to the time-intensive and costly nature of this research project.

Tags: Liability, Livestock Laws, Open Range, Stock Laws, Texas Agriculture Code

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