In September, two people in Lubbock posted stories on social media – saying they were attacked by dogs. One posted photos of injuries bad enough to require a trip to the hospital. In July, a dog bite incident at 82nd Street and Nashville Avenue made local news with two people getting injured.
Almost 10 months ago, David Glasheen, councilman for District 3, strongly criticized Lubbock Animal Services, saying, “I’m not satisfied with the current performance of the department.”
How does he feel now?
“Across the board, the department is doing better than they were a year ago, but we still need improvement. Stray and loose dogs are still a major quality of life issue for people all across the city,” said Glasheen.
Steven Greene, Animal Services Director, the target of Glasheen’s criticism months ago, outlined for LubbockLights.com where LAS has improved, adding “There’s always going to be room for improvement.”
LAS has:
- Reduced the wait time for calls about problem animals.
- Is adding staff to go out and get those animals.
- Trying to find where stray dogs belong and not just take them to the shelter.
The public can help by reporting problem animals, Greene added.
Lubbock Animal Services (LAS) began emailing a weekly statistics roundup to the news media this year. Click here to see a spreadsheet LubbockLights.com compiled from the weekly reports.
“The wait time on phone calls is way down,” Greene said.
“Some days the hold time is a little bit longer, but I have been really impressed with us getting it down to what I consider a manageable level, especially with the volume of calls we get daily,” Greene said.
“We have had some staffing issues in the last couple of months where we’ve had both long-term employees and short-term employees that have resigned,” Greene said.
In addition to replacing a kennel technician and a customer service representative, the current budget starting October 1 allows LAS to hire two more officers.
Glasheen said, “With two more field officers, that’s going to improve their ability to respond to calls.”
“The most important thing that LAS needs to improve is getting stray dogs off the streets. That’s going to be done through field operations. So, the department needs to improve its response to calls and its ability to get officers out on the scene quickly,” Glasheen said.
“These are stray and loose dogs that deter people from walking on their block or playing in the park with their kids. So, I want to see the department focus on the stray-and-loose dog issue primarily,” Glasheen said.
Getting strays off the streets
Lubbock’s growth adds to the challenge, Greene said.
“We keep expanding and annexing. … You’re having to cover more territory,” he said, adding the two new field officers will help.
LubbockLights.com asked about further budget priorities in coming years.
“I think getting some more cage trucks. Our fleet’s kind of old and we put a lot of miles on them. So, I think our cage trucks would be a big priority. I think increasing our funding for the spay and neuter program – we always want to get as many animals spayed and neutered as possible. And then just staffing – I think we’re spread pretty thin at times, both in the shelter and in the field.”
What would success look like?
Glasheen did not have specific response times in mind.
“I’ll leave it to the department to develop those sort of operational guidelines,” Glasheen said.
Greene said Lubbock residents can help.
“One thing I find frustrating at times is that a neighbor won’t call us and tell us that their neighbor’s dog is out and being aggressive,” Greene said.
“Especially in some neighborhoods, there’s some neighbors you don’t want to get on the wrong side of. But if the citizens would let us know about problem dogs before they create a bigger problem, then we would … be able to get ahead of the situation.”
Shelter sometimes over capacity
From July to now, the number of dogs in the shelter dropped from 369 to 280. The shelter in the 3300 block of Southeast Loop 289 has a capacity of 359 – meaning the shelter has been over capacity at times.
There are a few reasons for the lower numbers.
“We’ve had some medical issues with puppies, parvo. … So, we’ve had to euthanize some puppies for sickness,” Greene said of canine parvovirus.
The shelter tries to avoid euthanasia except for health or behavioral issues.
- The number of dogs adopted in each of the last 12 months ranged from 124 to 245.
- The number transported to partner agencies out of state ranged from 4 to 41 in each of the last 12 months.
“I think our field officers have done a good job of knocking on doors and finding where animals belong instead of having to bring them in. … I think that’s kind of lowered the intake number somewhat,” Greene said.
“When you’re bringing in fewer intakes, you’re going to have less animals in the shelter.”
Looking at the charts
Total calls for service in the last three years are slightly trending up. If a three-month rolling average were applied to the numbers they show calls going from 1,319 in late 2022 to 1,564 in August.
Looking at total bite cases in the last year, the trend is slightly down – which is also true for the numbers released by the city for the last three years.
Starting in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, LAS began to track the difference between minor, moderate and severe dog bites – not just lumping all dog bites into one category.
Severe bites range from zero to four per month under the new measurement system – with moderate and minor categories being much higher.
“This fiscal year, we have recorded 15 – what we consider – severe bites. We’ve never tracked that before, so it’s hard to say if that’s better or not. But it was a lot less, I think, than what some people on the council thought it would be. We’ve had 333 moderate dog bites and 290 minor bites through the end of August,” Greene said.
An issue with council, not the department
Glasheen raised another issue, making it clear it’s an issue where he differs with his fellow council members, not LAS.
“I’m still concerned with wasteful and inefficient spending in the department that the council has chosen to allow. The department is spending money on grant programs that reward people for not taking care of their homes and provide a financial incentive for being irresponsible pet owners,” Glasheen said.
The city sets aside more than $70,000 per year to help people with fence repairs. The idea is to fix fences so dogs cannot escape from people’s yards. In January, Glasheen brought a budget amendment to his fellow council members to kill the program that did not pass.
“I’d much rather see those dollars spent on field officers and field enforcement efforts. … But that’s not a department decision. That is a city council decision,” Glasheen said.
Update: This story originally relied on call wait times provided by the city. After publication, the city discovered an error in its data and issued corrected numbers. Both the story and the “average hold time” chart have been updated.
