Texas Farm Animal Liability Act: Shield, Exceptions, and Signage

The Texas Farm Animal Liability Act, Chapter 87 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, blocks most injury lawsuits against ranchers, farm animal professionals, event sponsors, farm owners, and livestock producers when a participant is hurt by the inherent risks of working with covered livestock. The protection is real, but it is conditional. Six statutory exceptions can strip it away, and the shield only works if you have posted the required warning sign and used the correct language in your contracts. Miss one of those steps and a safe operation can still end up defending an ordinary negligence claim.

Which Animals and Activities the Statute Covers

The shield only applies if both the animal and the activity fit the statutory definitions in § 87.001. A “farm animal” includes equine animals (horses, ponies, mules, donkeys, hinnies), cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and hogs, ratites (ostriches, rheas, emus), chickens and other poultry, and honeybees kept in a managed colony.¹

A “farm animal activity” is defined broadly. Shows, fairs, rodeos, competitions, parades, training, boarding, pasturing, daily care, riding, transporting, loading and unloading, veterinary exams, vaccination, farrier work, and informal rides or hunts all qualify. Routine ranch work like branding, dehorning, weaning, and herding is covered too. A “farm” is any real estate used wholly or partly for raising, cultivating, grazing, or any other farming, livestock, agricultural, beekeeping, or aquaculture operation, which reaches from commercial cattle ranches to small hobby farms with a few goats.¹

Who the Shield Protects

Section 87.003 names the specific roles that qualify. Farm animal activity sponsors are people or groups that organize, own, or provide facilities for a farm animal activity, including 4-H clubs, riding clubs, therapeutic riding programs, and nonprofits. Farm animal professionals are people compensated for instruction, rental animals, or other farm-animal-related services, along with their employees. Farm owners and lessees are covered when activities take place on their property. Livestock producers who raise or handle livestock commercially are covered. Livestock show sponsors organizing nonprofit shows with more than two species or breeds are covered, as are the registered competitors.²

The injured person must also be a “participant.” For farm animal activities, that means someone who engages in the activity, whether paid or not. For livestock shows, it means someone who registers and is allowed to compete, or a person assisting that competitor. Pure spectators who stay in authorized areas are not participants and are not blocked by the statute; they can pursue an ordinary negligence claim.¹

What Counts as an Inherent Risk

The entire defense rests on this concept. If the injury came from an inherent risk of the activity, the lawsuit is blocked. If it came from something else, ordinary negligence rules apply. Section 87.003 identifies five categories:

The natural tendency of a farm animal to behave in ways that can injure or kill someone handling or near it
An animal’s unpredictable reaction to a sound, movement, unfamiliar object, person, or other animal
Surface and subsurface land conditions, in the context of equine activities
An animal colliding with another animal or an object
The possibility that a participant acts carelessly, loses control of the animal, or attempts something beyond their skill

A horse that bucks a rider, a bull that charges during loading, a goat that bolts and knocks someone down: these are inherent-risk scenarios, and the person who provided the animal or organized the event generally cannot be sued over them.²

The Six Exceptions That Destroy the Shield

Section 87.004 lists six situations where the protection disappears. Any one of them is enough to open the door to a lawsuit.

Faulty Equipment or Tack

If you provided the saddle, harness, halter, or other gear and it caused the injury, the shield fails when you knew or should have known the equipment was defective. A visibly cracked saddle tree or a fraying cinch strap that any reasonable inspection would catch is enough.

Failure to Assess the Participant’s Ability

Before letting someone work with an animal, you have to make a reasonable effort to gauge whether they can handle it safely. You can consider what the participant tells you about their experience, but you cannot stop there. Putting a first-time rider on a notoriously difficult horse, or handing a rope to someone obviously unfamiliar with livestock, can trigger liability even if the person claimed they knew what they were doing.³

Hidden Land Hazards

If a dangerous condition on the property was not obvious to the participant, and the person in control of the land knew about it but failed to post signs, provide written notices, or give verbal warnings, liability attaches. A covered irrigation ditch, an unstable embankment, or a sinkhole in a pasture would qualify. The condition must be latent, meaning not visible to someone paying ordinary attention.

Willful or Wanton Disregard for Safety

This goes past ordinary carelessness. It covers conduct where you knew the risk was serious and proceeded anyway, with conscious indifference to the participant’s safety.

Intentional Harm

Deliberately causing injury, death, or property damage is never protected. This is separate from willful disregard because it requires proof of actual intent to cause harm, not just reckless indifference.

Livestock Show Non-Participant Injuries

This one targets a narrow scenario. Someone is invited to take part in a livestock-show-related activity but does not meet the statutory definition of “participant” because they never registered. If that person is injured, the show sponsor can be held liable. Casual attendees and unregistered volunteers who get pulled into activities can fall into this gap.³

The Warning Sign and Contract Language Are Not Optional

Section 87.005 conditions the entire defense on compliance with specific notice requirements. A safe operation that skips this step can still lose the shield.

Farm animal professionals, farm owners, and lessees must post and maintain a sign with the statutory warning at every stable, barn, corral, or arena where they conduct farm animal activities. Livestock show sponsors have the same obligation for their facilities. The sign has to be clearly visible to participants.⁴

The same statutory warning must appear in every written contract with a participant, and it has to be conspicuous. In practice that means bold type, a separate signature line, or some other formatting that keeps it from getting buried in the rest of the document.

There are two versions of the required warning: one for farm animal professionals and farm owners, and another for livestock show sponsors. Each states that under Texas law, Chapter 87 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code limits liability for injuries or death from the inherent risks of the covered activity. Using the wrong version, or paraphrasing rather than quoting the statutory language, creates unnecessary risk.

This is where most operations stumble. A rancher who runs a safe outfit but never puts up a sign, or who uses a generic waiver with no Chapter 87 language, has given away the strongest defense the law provides. The sign costs almost nothing. Not having one can cost everything.

Situations the Act Does Not Reach

Section 87.002 excludes any activity regulated by the Texas Racing Commission. Horse racing and related events fall under a different regulatory framework, and Chapter 87 neither shields nor blocks claims arising from them.²

Spectators who stay in authorized areas are outside the Act, so a bystander injured by an escaping bull at a rodeo pursues a standard negligence claim rather than running into the Chapter 87 defense. Animals not listed as “farm animals” are also outside the statute’s scope. Injuries from a dog on a ranch, a feral hog during a guided hunt, or an exotic animal at a private facility fall back on general Texas negligence and premises liability law.¹

If You Are Working from the Older Version of the Law

Before September 1, 2021, this statute was called the Equine Activity Liability Act, and its protections centered almost entirely on horses and related equine animals. House Bill 365 renamed it the Farm Animal Liability Act and rewrote the definitions to bring in cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, ratites, and honeybees.⁵

The amendments also added farm owners, lessees, and livestock producers to the list of protected roles in § 87.003. Before 2021, a cattle rancher who invited a buyer onto the property to inspect a herd had an uncertain claim to statutory protection. The current version resolves that. The inherent-risk language now applies to all covered farm animals and explicitly reaches the raising and handling of livestock on a farm, so operations that always worked with cattle, goats, or poultry alongside horses are finally covered by the same framework their operations actually rely on.⁶

1
State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code 87.001 – Definitions
2
Texas Legislature. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 87 – Liability Arising from Farm Animal Activities and Livestock Shows
3
State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code 87.004 – Exceptions to Limitation on Liability
4
State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code 87.005 – Warning Notice
5
Texas Legislature Online. Texas House Bill 365 – 87th Legislature
6
Texas Legislature Online. Texas Senate Bill 1078 – 87th Legislature