---
type: "Bill"
title: "Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages (Buddy's Law)"
description: "Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages (Buddy's Law)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2025"
identifier: "SB 581"
citation: "Maryland SB 581 (2025)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Henson"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 13
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2025-01-27"
last_action: "2025-04-22"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/95cbd292-487c-48ea-afdb-c732fda900e4"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/sb0581?ys=2025RS&search=True"
source_hash: "0dd83b0151f53ab9ddbe89969606c4acbe3aba26f080bdf3e0a3838fd6b9e6b9"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
---

# Maryland SB 581 (2025) — Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages (Buddy's Law)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Chapter - Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages (Buddy's Law)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/Chapters_noln/CH_100_sb0581t.pdf)
2. **First - Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/bills/sb/sb0581f.pdf)
3. **Third - Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages (Buddy's Law)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/bills/sb/sb0581t.pdf)

## Votes

- On Third Reading — **138–1** (pass) · lower
- On Third Reading — **47–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Henson — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-01-27** First Reading Judicial Proceedings `referral-committee`
- **2025-01-30** Hearing 2/11 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2025-03-10** Favorable Report by Judicial Proceedings `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-11** Favorable Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-11** Floor Amendment {
- **2025-03-11** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2025-03-12** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2025-03-13** Referred Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2025-04-01** Favorable Report by Judiciary `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-04-02** Favorable Adopted Second Reading Passed `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-04-02** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2025-04-03** Returned Passed
- **2025-04-22** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 100 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/95cbd292-487c-48ea-afdb-c732fda900e4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).