Dallas A.S. Sweep S. Dallas for Strays

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This story is on the front page of today's DMN. Sadly, it is usually the animal who suffers for her/his owner's irresponsibility. If only the City could identify, ticket and arrest those people who let their dog or cat get into such dire straights in the first place. Opinions, anyone?http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/dallas/stories/122308dnmetanimalsweep.7662dd5.htmlDallas Animal Services focuses on education, catching strays in southern Dallas

10:44 PM CST on Monday, December 22, 2008

By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News jmeyers

 

Southern Dallas was going to the dogs. Video

 

SWAT team approach aides officers in southern Dallas dog roundups 12-23-08 So Animal Services decided to respond — COPS style.

The city agency has armed eight employees with catch poles and

tranquilizer guns for an intensive five-week campaign to round up

roaming animals in southern Dallas. Dispense with notions of cooing pet lovers and timid workers. This is no ordinary sweep.

High-speed chases are common. Officers canvass the streets for eight

hours daily. Brakes screech to jerky stops as the team descends on any

wandering dog or cat within its target area. Since the effort began two weeks ago, more than 900 animals have been collected.

“We’ve done sweeps before, but in the past it was from folks calling.

It was reactive,” said Dallas Animal Services manager Kent Robertson as

he watched two employees appear from behind a house with Chihuahua

puppies. “Now it’s proactive.” Southern Dallas receives

the highest number of calls to the 311 city services hotline about

belligerent animals. More than 7,000 people called in complaints from

southeast Dallas during the last fiscal year, compared to 567 in

north-central Dallas. The problem stems from

“irresponsible pet owners allowing their animals to breed and run

loose,” said Mr. Robertson. Now, rather than merely

responding to frustrated phone calls, Animal Services is pushing

education, he said. Officers pass out brochures explaining the

importance of spaying pets. Pamphlets detail new ordinances about

tethering and confinement that went into effect at the end of October.

Lay Williams nodded as Sabrina Hull, an Animal Services employee, gave

him a brief lecture and handed his mutt back to him on a leash. The dog

looked like a stray tromping down the street with no registration, Ms.

Hull said. “This is good,” Mr. Williams said, accepting a

handful of educational materials. “I’m going to take them up on that.”

He’d just moved into the Pleasant Grove neighborhood on the edge of

southeast Dallas, where dogs claim many of the streets. In all, Animal Services has returned more than 150 loose animals to owners in southern Dallas. Not everyone appreciates the initiative.

Juan Enriquez said Animal Services goes after his Chihuahuas because

they stray a few feet from his house off Military Parkway.

“For me, this is bad,” said the paint company owner, who has been

visited twice by Animal Services. “They come only for my dogs and not

the others in the street.” Whether it's pawing after

owned or abandoned pets, the team's members have no shortage of

collections. On a bitingly cold Tuesday, they collected their daily

high of 82 animals. They rounded up almost 500 dogs and cats in the

first week. Most of these mangy mutts and forsaken

felines — almost 100 cats have been collected — won’t find homes. About

80 percent of the animals in the shelter are euthanized.

Last year, 36,000 animals wound up in the hands of Animal Services.

About 2,000 were adopted, 2,000 were returned to owners and 2,500 were

distributed to rescue groups. The rest were put to sleep. “Probably most of the dogs will be euthanized because they were abandoned,” said Mr. Robertson That makes the educational initiative that much more vital, he said.

“I hope people get it,” Mr. Robertson said, watching another Animal

Services employee tell a chow owner that he needed to have his dog

registered. “Vaccinated, registered, spayed and neutered — follow the rules,” the Animal Services manager said. Senior officer Luis Gomez agreed as he slammed the van doors shut.

His breath came heavy as he recovered from a back-alley sprint after a

loose dog. “We do it all day,” he said, wheezing. Then he

started the ignition and darted after his teammate, who’d just radioed

about a pack of pit bulls a few streets away. BY THE NUMBERS 900 animals collected in first two weeks of the program 82 collected on busiest day of the sweep 7,000 complaints from southeast Dallas for the last fiscal year 150 loose animals returned to owners in southern Dallas