44-17-304 - Minimum holding time before an animal may be euthanized Emergency exception. - Tennessee Statutes

44-17-304. Minimum holding time before an animal may be euthanized Emergency exception.

(a)  Before any public or private agency, animal shelter or other facility operated for the collection, care or euthanasia of stray, neglected, abandoned or unwanted non-livestock animals euthanizes a non-livestock animal that the facility knows or should know, by identification or vaccination tags, personal knowledge or otherwise, has an owner, the facility shall be required to hold the animal for at least three (3) full business days from the time it is brought to the facility before the animal may be euthanized.

(b)  Subsection (a) shall not apply where an emergency situation exists that requires the immediate euthanasia of an injured, dangerous or severely diseased non-livestock animal.

[Acts 2008, ch. 639, § 3.]