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CITY'S STRAYS, LONG ODDS Three of every four animals that end up in Fort Worth's shelters are euthanized By
Mike Lee
Molinar, a Fort Worth animal control officer, shook a lasso as a distraction as another officer came from behind, threw a rope ... and missed. The dog darted through a gate and, for the next 20 minutes, loped through the Fairmount neighborhood with Molinar and officers Julio Vasquez and Marc Oler in hot pursuit. It cut across traffic on 8th Avenue. Through a hospital parking lot. Back across 8th. West on Park Place. In and out of vacant houses. Finally, it doubled back and lost all three chasers. A neighbor ambled out to see what the ruckus was about and recognized the dog by its description. "Oh, he's indestructible. He's probably been around five years." Stray animals are a perennial problem throughout Tarrant County, but Fort Worth officials have become increasingly frustrated by the number of animals they must destroy. Three-fourths of the 20,000 animals brought to the city shelter each year are deemed unadoptable and given a lethal injection. That's 42 animals each day. Animals that are considered adoptable remain at the shelter until someone takes them home. But for thousands of dogs that were born on the streets or are sick, injured or aggressive, there is little hope. More than 15,000 animals were euthanized in fiscal 2003, which ended in September. That's 2 percent higher than the year before. The numbers sparked an impromptu speech Tuesday from Councilman Chuck Silcox, who blamed "those who don't understand the responsibility of taking care of an animal and getting it fixed." Animal Control Supervisor Keane Menefee summed up the problem in three words: "Irresponsible pet owners." Fort Worth's problem appears to be more severe than in some other local cities. Arlington euthanizes about two-thirds of the more than 10,000 animals brought to its shelter. In Grapevine, where the city shelter serves neighboring Southlake and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, less than half the animals that are brought in are euthanized, police Lt. Ken Murray said. In fiscal 2003, 626 out of 1,409 animals were killed, he said. "We're really fortunate," Murray said. "We have a tremendous adoption rate." The Humane Society of North Texas in Fort Worth euthanized about 75 percent of the 22,597 animals brought to its shelter during fiscal 2001, the latest numbers immediately available. In about 1,800 of those cases, the owners asked the Humane Society to put down the animals because they were old or sick, business director Amy Nelson said. In Fort Worth, the vast majority of the animals brought to the Health Department's shelter at 4900 Martin St. have no license or vaccinations and haven't been spayed or neutered. Many belong to someone, Menefee said. "People let Bowzer run the neighborhood," he said. "It's biting people. It's producing more litters." The city receives about 1,000 reports of animal bites a year. A study found that most of the bites come from family dogs that are unlicensed and unsupervised. The bites were scattered throughout Fort Worth, with the highest incidence in four ZIP codes -- 76106 on the north side, 76119 on the east side, 76110 on the south side and 76133 on the southwest side. "I've had kids tell me stories about how they've got to take alternate routes [to school] to avoid packs of dogs," Menefee said. In the Jennings-May-St. Louis neighborhood south of downtown, stray animals "definitely" have an impact, neighborhood association President Joe Martinez said. A child was bitten by a dog a few months ago, and residents complain about people who abandon dogs and cats in nearby areas, he said. "It's a problem," he said. "We do what we can." A few hours after chasing the chow in Fairmount, Molinar parked his truck at a small brick house near Oak Grove Road and Interstate 20 in southeast Fort Worth. Pat Jamison had called the city and asked for a trap after a stray cat got into her attic and fell through the ceiling into her home. After just one day, she caught a big white tom, who hissed and clawed at the cage when Molinar approached. Once an animal arrives at the Fort Worth shelter, the clock starts ticking. Attendants screen the animals to see if they're suitable for adoption. Animals are generally considered to be adoptable if they are friendly and healthy. Workers try to save as many animals as they can but are being faced increasingly with a rougher group of dogs, officials said. Animals not chosen for adoption are put in cages in back. If they have tags, they stay at the shelter for 10 days while workers try to identify and contact the owners. If they don't have tags, the animals are kept for 72 hours, just in case someone comes to claim them. Then, Menefee will take a blue felt-tip pen and mark their log sheet with a capital "E." One of 10 attendants will take the cat or dog to a laboratory, check its paperwork one more time to make sure it hasn't been misidentified and scan it to see if it has been implanted with an identifying microchip. The animal is placed on a stainless steel table and injected with a few cubic centimeters -- a lethal dose -- of sodium pentobarbital. It will usually fall unconscious within three to five seconds and die within a few minutes. The attendants put the animal in a bag and lay it next to dozens of others in a freezer the size of a small bedroom. Once a day, a forklift hauls the frozen bodies to a trash bin, where they're picked up and carried to the city landfill. "Too danged many," Menefee said. The best way to avoid losing a pet is to make sure it has a city license, which costs $7, Menefee said. The city offers low-cost clinics a few times a year that allow people to get their animals vaccinated and licensed for a smaller fee. Prospective owners must agree to have their dogs and cats spayed or neutered before they can adopt from the Fort Worth shelter. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that a single unsterilized female dog can produce two litters of six to 10 puppies a year. An unsterilized female cat can have three litters of four to six kittens a year. With the holidays approaching, animal welfare workers across the country are warning people not to give puppies or kittens as gifts. The Humane Society recommends that people give gift certificates, so people can go to the shelter themselves and pick an animal that suits their personality, Nelson said. In Fort Worth, the Animal Control Department is trying to combat the problem by shifting officers from educational work to enforcement. The number of citations for animal code violations, such as no license, is going up, from about 6,000 in 2001-02 to 11,000 in 2002-03, and officers have been told to issue tickets rather than warnings, Menefee said. Fines can run as high as $500. "We declared war," he said, "on irresponsible pet owners." How to adopt a dog or cat Most shelters charge an adoption fee and require owners to have a dog or cat vaccinated and spayed or neutered. Shelters in Tarrant County include: • Fort Worth Animal Control Department, 4900 Martin St. in southeast Fort Worth, (817) 392-3737. @online:ONLINE: www.fortworthgov.org/health/ac • Humane Society of North Texas, 1840 E. Lancaster Ave. near downtown Fort Worth, (817) 332-HSNT. @online:ONLINE: www.hsnt.net • Arlington shelter, 5920 W. Pioneer Parkway, (817) 451-3436. In
Northeast Tarrant County, shelters are in Bedford at 1809 Reliance
Parkway, (817) 952-2191; Grapevine at 500 Shady Brook, (817) 410-3370;
Haltom City at 5312 Midway Road, (817) 759-2124; North Richland
Hills at 7200-B Dick Fisher Drive, (817) 427-6575; and Richland
Hills at 7049 Baker Blvd., (817) 314-3962. ©
2003 Star Telegram and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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