Bill Text: TX HB1675 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to the interment of certain cremated animal remains with human remains in perpetual care cemeteries.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-12-19 - Filed [HB1675 Detail]
Download: Texas-2025-HB1675-Introduced.html
89R4699 EAS-D | ||
By: Campos | H.B. No. 1675 |
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relating to the interment of certain cremated animal remains with | ||
human remains in perpetual care cemeteries. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. This Act shall be known as Mona's Law. | ||
SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 712, Health and Safety | ||
Code, is amended by adding Section 712.010 to read as follows: | ||
Sec. 712.010. PET INTERMENT. (a) In this section: | ||
(1) "Columbarium," "grave," "interment," and | ||
"memorial" have the meanings assigned by Section 711.001. | ||
(2) "Cremated remains" means the bone fragments | ||
remaining after the cremation process, which may include the | ||
residue of any foreign materials that were cremated with the human | ||
or pet remains. | ||
(3) "Cremation" means the irreversible process of | ||
reducing human or pet remains to bone fragments through extreme | ||
heat and evaporation, which may include the processing or the | ||
pulverization of bone fragments. | ||
(4) "Pet" means a domesticated animal that an | ||
individual owns and keeps in or near the individual's household for | ||
the primary purpose of companionship. The term does not include a | ||
livestock animal as defined by Section 42.09, Penal Code. | ||
(b) Notwithstanding any other law, a perpetual care | ||
cemetery may allow: | ||
(1) the cremated remains of a deceased individual's | ||
pet to be: | ||
(A) buried in the individual's casket at the time | ||
of the individual's interment; | ||
(B) buried in a separate grave near the | ||
individual's grave at the time of the individual's interment; or | ||
(C) placed beside the individual's cremated | ||
remains in a columbarium; and | ||
(2) information about the pet to be included on the | ||
individual's memorial. | ||
(c) An individual may not euthanize a pet for the purpose of | ||
interring the pet with a deceased individual. | ||
(d) A perpetual care cemetery may dedicate an area, separate | ||
from other areas of the cemetery, as a family cemetery in which a | ||
family's human and pet remains may be buried in separate graves. | ||
SECTION 3. As soon as practicable after the effective date | ||
of this Act, the Finance Commission of Texas shall adopt rules | ||
necessary to implement the changes in law made by this Act. | ||
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025. |