Stray Animal Concerns

On Tuesday night, around 50 people met with county officials to discuss what could be done about the problem.

“The reason I’ve gotten involved is because I’ve gotten a tremendous amount of calls telling me about dogs chasing people, dogs in people’s yards,” said Steve Hoyland, the community newspaperman who organized the meeting. “We’ve got people in San Leon who can’t walk down their own street without taking a big stick. We just want to see what can be done.”

Representatives from the Galveston County Health District, which oversees the county’s animal services, to with residents about recent changes to practices and personnel and fielded questions about handling nuisance animals.

Chief among the program’s changes mentioned was the recent hire of Michelle Reynolds, an animal rescue specialist, as manager of the former animal control division. Reynolds and Ronnie Schultz, director of environmental health programs, emphasized the county’s animal services has recently beefed up its staff from two officers to seven people. They also have begun working with local rescue groups to help reduce animal breeding and respond to the high number of unwanted animals in the area.

For some of the residents in attendance, however, answers about citations and neutering clinics were not enough.

“What we want to find out is what people should do if they have a problem animal,” said Hoyland. “What can be done, what’s the owner’s responsibility and things like that? If you’ve got an aggressive dog after you, what can and can’t you do about it legally?”

First Assistant District Attorney Mo Ibrahim explained that it was legal to kill an animal placing a human being in imminent danger, but that it was illegal to hunt down problem animals, and shooting an animal wearing a collar might be construed in court as wrongdoing.

Neither the community members nor officials at Tuesday’s meeting claimed to have all of the answers to a complex problem that has plagued the area for years, but all involved felt the discussion was at least a step forward.

“None of us are running around wanting to shoot dogs,” said Hoyland. “I’m an animal-lover and a dog-owner myself. We just want to know if we can get some help if we really do have a problem.”