TexasCHLforum.com

Just watched a piece on the news where a suspect, and I use the term loosely because it’s on camera, beat two dogs to death with a log.

Since animal cruelty is now a felony in Texas, it begs the question whether or not the use of deadly force is justified to stop such cruelty?

Opinions?

I wouldn't want to be the one on trial for it.

I think this area comes down to the difference in can I and should I.

I'm an animal lover. Big time. But I also believe a human life is more valuable than an animal's life. No matter what the can I situation is, I'd be more likely to video the situation and be a witness.

My dog is my property.
Property rules apply.

Our latest rescue was an abuse victim as early as 2 months old. He was taken away from the man that had him and finally at 3 months old he was put up for adoption. We know the director of the rescue that had been housing him and she was afraid that his guy would have some friends adopt him and give him back to the offender, therefore we adopted him.
We were allowed to see the court video of the abuse and believe me, I would like to have protected him with whatever force would have been necessary.
He has turned out to be a wonderful addition to our family. We just celebrated his 2nd gotcha year anniversary

I believe that RoyGBiv has the key point correctly. Animal are considered property under Texas law as far as I know. Therefore, look at Sections 9.42, 9.42, and 9.43 for the legal justifications for using force. Animal cruelty is not one of the crimes listed, so the best you might be able to get to is that it would be considered criminal mischief, so if it occurs at night then you might be legally covered.

And the other half of this is that all property in Texas is owned by somebody. All animals are owned, either by some individual or by the state. If the person is killing his own dog/animal, it would not even be considered criminal mischief. And I sincerely doubt you could prove that the third person who owned the property asked you to protect it (by shooting him).

All in all, I think you might be able to win in a jury trial if you used some force, but not deadly force. And I am not sure I could recommend banking on a sympathetic jury even for that.

Not to mention that if you do shoot the guy who's beating his dog, he probably has justification to return fire.

I don't know the details of the scenario the OP presented, but I don't think I could stand by and watch someone inflict felony animal cruelty.

I would not intervene with deadly force, but I would act to stop animal cruelty with an appropriate level of intervention. If the animal abuser then chooses to ratchet up the force level... that becomes a different question.