In memory of Pancho · 2018–2021
Pancho's Law is now the law of Texas.
On September 1, 2025, HB 285 — Pancho's Law — took effect. For the first time, Texas can prosecute trainers, boarders, groomers, and daycares whose criminal negligence kills or injures a pet. A loophole closed. A promise kept.
Authored by Rep. Claudia Ordaz with Reps. Leach, Meyer, Moody, and Cook, sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Royce West, and effective September 1, 2025. Pancho's Law adds criminal negligence to Texas's animal cruelty statute — finally giving families a path to justice when a pet service business kills or injures the dog they love.
The author of HB 285
Pancho's Law is law today because of her. As lead author, Rep. Ordaz filed HB 285, recruited co-authors across the aisle, and carried the bill through every reading on the Texas House floor — finally passing on third reading 125 to 5.
Representing Texas House District 79, Rep. Ordaz turned a Dallas family's loss into a statewide law that protects every Texan with a dog. To Paul and Maria — and to every family that ever lost a pet to negligence and was told there was nothing they could do — thank you, Representative.
Texas Capitol · HB 285
A four-year fight, two chambers, two roll calls. Watch the Texas House and Senate close the loophole that took Pancho.
Our story
In 2021, Paul and Maria Mecca's dog Pancho died while in the care of a Dallas dog daycare. The business lied about what happened — to Maria and Paul, to law enforcement, and to other customers — even with video evidence to the contrary.
What they discovered next was harder than the loss itself: under Texas law, all those businesses had to do was claim it was an accident. Four years later, that loophole is closed.
Read the full storyThe path
How a family's loss became one of the most significant Texas animal-welfare wins of the 89th Legislature — and why the work isn't over yet.
What HB 285 actually does — the loophole it closes, the penalties it creates, and who it protects.
Read the billHow Texas media, animal-welfare groups, and the Texas Bar covered Pancho's Law and the path to passage.
See coverageThe reality of dog care in Texas — what families couldn't do under the old law, and why a fix was overdue.
See the factsEnforcement, education, and expanding protections beyond Texas. The work continues — and we still need your stories.
Help us continue"My husband and I quickly learned there is a loophole in Texas law that allows pet service businesses to act with impunity by simply claiming negligence. All they have to do is say 'I didn't mean to kill your dog.'"Maria Mecca, testifying before a Texas Senate committee — as reported by KXAN, May 2025