§ 92.004.Effect on Other Law

Two saving provisions closing the chapter.

Subsection (a): the chapter does not limit the application of or supersede Section 822.013, Health and Safety Code, or Section 801.358, Occupations Code.

The first concerns a dog or coyote attacking livestock or fowl, and the second concerns a veterinarian's duty regarding an animal in their care. Both address relationships this chapter would otherwise cut across.

Subsection (b) is the important one: the chapter does not create any civil liability or waive any defense, immunity, or jurisdictional bar available under state law.

Three things are preserved, and the third is jurisdictional. A claimant cannot use this chapter to reach a governmental animal control agency that would otherwise be immune from suit — and immunity from suit under the Tort Claims Act is jurisdictional rather than a defence.

Since a municipal or county animal control office is a governmental unit, that clause is doing real work. This chapter protects the agency further without opening it to claims the Tort Claims Act bars.

The no-liability clause matches the food donor and recreational use chapters, which say the same thing. A chapter that limits exposure should not be readable as creating any.