Photo illustration from Shutterstock
More dog attacks over recent years mean Lubbock will probably euthanize more dogs at its facility off Loop 289.
Lubbock Animal Services (LAS) is not officially a “no-kill” shelter but tries to meet that standard when possible to ward off protests against euthanizing dogs.
The shelter has taken 23 percent fewer strays the last seven years while dog bite cases have risen 33 percent over the same period, according to public records acquired by LubbockLights.com
The issue led to some tense moments during Tuesday’s City Council meeting when Steven Greene, LAS director, appeared at the request of David Glasheen, District 3 city councilman.
The Council was told if pet owners want to make an appointment with LAS to bring in a dog, they would have to wait until July, which Glasheen called “unacceptable.”
Gordon Harris, District 2 city councilman, said, “I’ve lost two friends to dog attacks. I don’t see any dog catchers in my district. Is that a shortage of staff?”
Greene said yes.
“There’s an abundance of stray dogs. I mean four or five to a pack. And I’m seeing them on a daily basis. I see these dogs for an entire week running around in a pack … That’s putting people’s lives in danger,” Harris said.
Then he mentioned Jack Clinton Looney, adding, “Known him over 20 years.”
Two years ago, police officers found Looney dead from a dog attack when they came to the Buddy Holly Recreational Area to help a woman injured by loose dogs. The other case was an elderly woman mauled to death in her yard in 2019 when a neighbor’s dogs got out.
Related story: Lubbock’s serious problem with stray dogs sparks successful dog adoption event
Veterinarian Eila Machado, who works with LAS, told the Council euthanasia is a heated question.
“Whenever you talk about euthanasia, you get swarms of people much against. … Often the loudest people in the communities are ones that are highly against euthanasia,” he said.
Harris responded, “So I need to get a little bit louder?”
The problem wouldn’t be as critical if people were responsible, taking actions to prevent more strays. The Council discussed ways to increase punishment.
Greene told LubbockLights.com he thinks more dogs will be put down because of direction from the Council.
Mayor Mark McBrayer said, “We may have to take some steps that are not popular with some people. … But I think the public is asking us to focus on public safety.”
Personal stories
“I see loose dogs all the time,” McBrayer told LubbockLights.com the day after the Council meeting.
“I walk around my park there in my neighborhood. … Two dogs come running up to me like they were going to attack me one morning. It’s a scary thing. Terribly scary,” he said.
J. David Bruegel, local chairman of the Republican Party, manages real estate for a living.
Loose dogs are a real danger for his properties east of University Avenue, he said.
“When my leasing manager and I went to show a property over near MLK and North Loop, a Doberman ran out of nowhere and bit her leg,” Bruegel said.
LAS responded, he said, but not promptly. The dog was not captured.
In another instance, he needed to check on a vacant property.
“We arrived to find a dog sitting on the front porch that didn’t want to let us in the house and was barking at us. And so, we called animal control. They indicated they did not intend to respond. They said, and I believe their exact words were, ‘We don’t do that anymore,’” Bruegel said.
Greene told LubbockLights.com an LAS employee should not say that.
“That is not a policy. That is not anything that I would have any of my staff tell somebody,” he added.
Greene wondered if maybe it was a new employee or a communication problem.
“We do run our field calls by priority, but we respond to every call,” Greene said.
Waiting eight months for owner surrender
Glasheen asked during Tuesday’s meeting how someone would take a dog to the shelter. The answer was to call ahead and make an appointment.
“What’s the current waiting period to get an appointment for an owner surrender?” he asked.
Taylor Ruggles, assistant LAS director said, “Probably I’d say you’re looking about July.”
The shelter only takes one dog per day from pet owners. That does not include dogs in traps, or violent dogs which become priority cases, Ruggles said.
Anyone with an emergency can call the shelter or 911 and LAS will respond, Greene said.
Greene told LubbockLights.com on Wednesday someone who picked up a stray dog can usually get in within a week. But LAS will ask you to post an image of the dog on social media and try to locate the owner.
The shelter will try to work with folks when an owner becomes disabled or other unforeseen circumstances. But mostly, people cannot use the shelter to get out of pet ownership.
“There’s so many better options. Shelters nationwide really tried to limit the owner surrenders. Many won’t take an owner surrender at all,” Greene said,
Machado told the Council, “Delaying intake to a shelter often actually finds a positive … outcome. Folks will say, ‘I don’t need my appointment anymore because it went to live with whoever.’”
Glasheen pushed back, saying “whoever” is an unwilling neighbor in the county.
“A pet owner is not going to wait eight months to surrender a pet. They’re going to drive out to a county road where it dead ends, drop the dog off, and then that becomes a stray dog,” Glasheen said.
Not satisfied with the current performance
Glasheen told Greene in the meeting, “As I’ve told you before. I’m not satisfied with the current performance of the department.”
McBrayer said, “I think everyone of us on that Council experienced a substantial number of complaints.”
“I would say it ranks up there probably right behind, ‘My trash wasn’t picked up’ and, ‘There’s a pothole on my street.’ … The loose dog, I would say, it’s probably our number three complaint,” McBrayer said.
McBrayer was on the council for two years before running for mayor. It was a problem then, he said, as it remains now. The city should impound more animals, he said. But the shelter is already overcrowded.
He’s not convinced building a bigger shelter is the answer.
“Money isn’t always the solution to every problem. Sometimes it’s just your policies,” McBrayer said.
Glasheen told LAS in the council meeting, “The flow of instructions is going to be from the Council to the department. And so part of the conversation today is to set our expectations of what we want to see from the department.”
“I’m telling you from my perspective right now, it’s unacceptable to have one appointment a day. It’s unacceptable to wait eight months and we’re just trusting that the dogs have gone off to find a better home,” Glasheen said.
McBrayer said, “We’re elected officials, and our priority is our people, plain and simple.”
Slideshow: various slides from City Council presentation by LAS
How things are done
In fiscal year 2017-18, there were 629 dog bite cases in Lubbock. It peaked five years later at 903 cases before coming down to 839 cases in fiscal year 2023-24.
The shelter accepted 8,951 animals in 2017-18. That number dropped to 6,902 in the most recently completed fiscal year.
The LAS tracks investigations and calls, but Greene does not know how many stray dogs are on the streets.
Greene told the Council his department runs about 5,000 calls per month and he doesn’t have enough staff to handle everything. The current staff is 31 full-time employees, three part-time and a contract veterinarian.
“We do have officers on duty from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. And then we have an officer on call every night for emergency only from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.,” he said.
Two new people were added to his budget, roughly $3.5 million this year, to answer the phone. That helps, but he needs more officers in the field too. New radios and more equipment would help too.
Greene thought $1 million more per year would get the department into a better position to carry out the City Council’s policy directives.
“We do have difficulty hiring. … And we have a large turnover rate. I think nationwide, animal services do have a large turnover,” Greene said.
Euthanizing animals only makes that harder, said Machado.
“A human is doing that, and that’s actually emotionally damaging,” Machado said.
The shelter often keeps two or three dogs (sometimes four) in a space made for one. After a while, dogs don’t do well in confined spaces. They begin to behave badly and become unsuitable for adoption, she said.
“On average, every day LAS has 21 animals brought in – nine animals adopted, two animals fostered,” Machado said.
There’s no time limit for a dog. For as long as it is healthy and well behaved, it will not be euthanized. One dog was in the shelter for three years before getting a new home.
Trying to avoid euthanizing animals
“We have never claimed to be ‘no kill,’” Greene said. But there have been times when the shelter technically met the criteria.
In the most recent month, Green said the save rate was 87.8 percent.
The LAS mission statement is: “Our mission is to find positive outcomes for as many animals that come into our shelter as we can.”
• Broken fences.
• People not spaying or neutering pets.
• People not microchipping pets.
• Some dogs get street smart and can get away from officers.
• Employee turnover.
• Not enough vehicles and equipment.
• More detailed statistics, bites vs. scratches for example.
• More aggressive spay and neuter program
• Mandated spaying and neutering for all animals that come into the shelter with no loopholes.
• Hiring more people like an adoption coordinator, more officers and more dispatchers.
• Dangerous dog insurance requirement, $1 million minimum.
• Create a dangerous dog registry.
• Spot checks in neighborhoods (especially for dangerous dogs).
• Limit four pets per household (instead of four dogs plus four cats)
Enforcement
The Council asked if people are held responsible.
“We filed 1,096 citations with Municipal Court last year,” Ruggles said.
Some citations had multiple violations, so that number was 1,880.
Fines are often more than $350. The city is limited, most of the time, to fines of $500 by state law. Councilmembers have already talked to State Representative Carl Tepper about new laws.
Greene said, “There’s some council members that want to really go to hard-core enforcement and I’m all for that, for people that will not comply.”
Harris said it should not be everyone else’s responsibility to care for pets other people turned loose either intentionally or by letting their fences fall into disrepair.
But for those who are willing to do better in the future, Greene prefers a helping hand over an iron fist.
One example is the LAS fencing program. A family can apply for help in doing minor repairs to a fence. The LAS will purchase the raw materials. The owner or renter picks up the materials and completes the work.
“I believe in community resources,” Greene said.
Mayor Pro-tem Christy Martinez Garcia spoke strongly in favor of the fence program, calling it highly effective.
Glasheen and Jennifer Wilson, the District 5 Councilwoman, both raised concerns it rewards bad behavior. Folks should have kept their fences in good shape to begin with.
Greene said sometimes the help goes to renters who deal with an absentee landlord.
The program has $90,000 set aside this year. Just a few months into the fiscal year, it helped 20 families with an average of $850 worth of raw materials each.
Greene said he does not have statistics to prove the people who got help kept their pets from getting out.
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