Thursday, December 11, 2008

East Ft. Worth's stray/loose dog problem is Out of Control











I know you are probably getting tired of hearing about the stray dogs in City Council District 8 in East Ft. Worth. Just think if you had to actually witness it instead of just reading about it? Today as I was traveling down I30, I saw two dogs running around near the Interstate. I stopped and walked toward them to see if they would come to me. Of course not, they ran away from the highway into a nearby neighborhood. I drove around and found them (white dog in picture). The red one came up to me and ate some food, but I couldn't get my hands on him. He had ticks all over him and a huge infected area on top of his head. As I was driving away, I saw 3 other stray dogs (above). I placed several calls to Ft. Worth's Animal Control which is overwhelmed with dogs and calls. (817-392-3737 - leave message, they check them!) All dogs were UN-neutered, UN-spayed (intact). Thank goodness for Humane Society of North Texas. They take all dogs. I was able to catch 3 of the 5 dogs that I saw and take them over to the Humane Society. That is 3 dogs unable to impregnate or kill another one. That is 3 less dogs for you to run over with your car. That is 3 less dogs to cause a car wreck, etc. They take in and adopt out an enormous amount of dogs and they have an adoption center.
Due to the fact that the City of Ft. Worth does not aggressively enforce the current dog ordinances and due to the fact that the Texas State legislators have not aggressively addressed the problem with irresponsible dog ownership, we have a problem here that is costing all of us millions of tax dollars to pay staff to answer the phones at Animal Control, drive around & pick up the dogs, shelter the dogs, euthanize the dogs, dispose of the dogs, pick up dead dogs on roadways, take dead dogs to city landfill, etc. Not to mention the thousands of dogs, mostly Pitt Bull dogs in East Ft. Worth that our FW police officers shoot and kill. I could go on and on and on about the ramifications and the price we, the taxpayers, pay for irresponsible dog ownership. It gets into a "property rights" argument so I say we need to consider moving dogs out of the category of "property" in the big picture of the issue.
Please write your elected officials and tell them h0w you feel about the problem of stray dogs running our streets, neglected, not neutered or spayed, etc. I would appreciate your comments below with your thoughts on how to solve this out of control, costly problem. I would like to see ALL the current City Ordinances enforced and some changed.

I feel the same way about dogs that I do children, if you choose to own one then it is your responsibility to love and care for them, not the taxpayer's. I think the parents of such should be held accountable.

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