Sec. 71.009.  SEIZURE, TREATMENT, AND DESTRUCTION OF PLANTS, PLANT PRODUCTS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES.  (a)  The department shall seize any plant, plant product, or substance that it determines:
(1)  is transported or carried from a quarantined area in violation of a quarantine order;  or
(2)  is moved into or within this state and is infested with an insect pest or infected with a disease dangerous to any agricultural or horticultural product, whether or not the plant, product, or substance comes from an area known to be infested.
(b)  If a plant, plant product, or substance is seized under Subsection (a)(1) of this section, the department shall immediately notify the owner that the plant, product, or substance is a public menace and that it must be destroyed, treated, or, if feasible, returned to the point of origin.  If a plant, product, or substance is seized under Subsection (a)(2) of this section, the department shall immediately notify the owner that the plant, product, or substance is a public menace and that it must be destroyed or treated.
(c)  If the owner of a plant, plant product, or substance seized under Subsection (a) of this section is unknown to the department, the department shall publish notice that, after a date not less than 10 days after the first day of publication, the department will destroy the plant, product, or substance.  The department shall publish the notice for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the plant, product, or substance is found.  The notice must describe the article seized.  If the owner claims the article before the date for destruction set by the notice, the department shall deliver the article to the owner at the owner's expense.  If the owner does not claim the article within the allotted time, the department may destroy the article or have it destroyed.
(d)  If the owner of a fruit tree or fruit condemned by the department under this subchapter fails or refuses to destroy the tree or fruit immediately after being instructed to do so by the department, the department shall abate the nuisance and immediately destroy the tree or fruit or otherwise render the tree or fruit not a nuisance.  In enforcing this subsection, the department shall call on the sheriff of the county in which the tree or fruit is located, and the sheriff shall cooperate with the department and render all assistance considered necessary by the person seeking to destroy the tree or fruit.
(e)  The owner of a plant, plant product, or substance treated or destroyed by the department under this section is liable to the department for the costs of treatment or destruction, and the department may sue to collect those costs.
(f)  This section does not apply to a citrus plant, citrus plant product, or other citrus substance.
Acts 1981, 67th Leg., p. 1153, ch. 388, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1981.  Amended by Acts 1981, 67th Leg., 1st C.S., p. 242, ch. 22, art. II, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1981;  Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 230, Sec. 2, eff. May 20, 1993.