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Officials,
residents discuss stray animals
The Galveston
Daily News
06/16/04
By Nathan SmithSAN LEON
— The population
of homeless and unleashed dogs and cats
has been a burden to the county’s
unincorporated communities for years.
Recently, many residents in San Leon and
Bacliff have grown so fed up with the
problem that picking up a bat or a shotgun
before walking to the mailbox is starting
to seem like a sensible idea.
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.”
read
the press release
For More Information
Contact:
Kurt Koopmann
Public Information Officer
Galveston County Health District
(409) 938-2211
kkoopman@gchd.org
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