The subject of a stray dog and cat epidemic in Grayson County made its way to Collinsville City Council recently with discussion of two topics: spay/neuter clinics and restrictions against feeding of stray animals.
The key word is “discussion” — there was quite a bit of talk because the problem is huge— but it’s tricky because any action would require public money and law enforcement involvement. I’m totally in favor of the city supporting any spay/neuter effort, but I plead guilty as sin to feeding strays, and I’d probably get a ticket for it.
As seen on Facebook, the stray animal problem ebbs and flows. There’ll be times when explosions of stray cats or dogs appear in various neighborhoods, people suddenly have lots of free puppies to offer and around town, animals assumed to be pets just show up places. Odds are about 50/50 whether an owner, or somebody, will collect them from where they’re not wanted. Rumors abound that free puppies (and kittens?) are taken to be used for cruel practices; I’m not knowledgeable about that.
But somehow people step in, get the current crop of animals placed, and we wait for the next incursion, usually just a matter of days.
Over our six years in town, cats have periodically wandered around the front yard of our house and we never paid much attention. But an episode late last year affected us very traumatically when a small kitten we had never seen before crawled through our back yard chain link and was killed by our male poodle, who was never raised with cats. That’s when we decided to try to keep wandering cats in the front yard area by putting food and water up there. I’ll take a ticket for that, if Council votes that way, but it’s not a root cause of the problem.
Our outside food and water station has been used by a variety of cats and we post Facebook pictures of them in hopes of hearing from an owner, but it’s only happened once. A neighborhood cat had a collar and a little notch on the ear indicating she had been spayed. Who knew about that? She came to socialize with the strays but, as she’s spayed and vaxxed, she can go home with no problems.
Facebook is overwhelmed with “Found” cats and dogs. The word “found” is actually valid when it’s posted under an owner’s previous “Lost” pet post. But if a post originates with “Found," it 99.99% means “Dumped” —“Found” means you found the dumpee.
I don’t know what to say about the “dumpers” except a couple of things that have to be facts. The dumpers leave in the middle of the night, driving miles away from where they live so they won’t be recognized or anyone can get a license plate number. The next day, their neighbors might notice they don’t have those puppies anymore, or those barking dogs down the street are suddenly quiet. They’ll have a story to tell family and neighbors, and I guess they sleep well at night. Apparently they think what they do is an acceptable way to handle things.
Our heroes, the finders and rescuers of these little animal souls, on a roadside, or in a field, continue their mission because it’s in their hearts, but I can tell from their posts that they’re getting tired. Some of our rescue heroes are apologizing for becoming cynical—I’d say realistic— telling tales of what should be success stories, but aren’t. Stories of found animals that are chipped, then after time, effort and money is spent to reunite that pet with chip-listed owners who are finally located, the dots aren’t connecting, red flags pop up, and things start to look like the pet was not really lost but dumped, and the chip-people don’t want it back.
But before that suspicion proves out (rescuers are always so idealistic at heart), they sometimes see a show of “Oh, I’m so happy you found my pet!” Seasoned rescuers have seen it all, but they still hope against hope as they watch the chip-listed people drive away with their pet, its little mind ecstatic to see the owners again.
Meanwhile, the rescue heroes are holding their breath—they know what to look for: in a short time and in a different place, the pet will likely be dumped again. That’s the sort of thing that destroys a hero’s faith in society.
My family is not one of heroes, but we’ve done what a lot of people do if they can. We adopted two stray cats and two dumped puppies. I’m telling the short version of our adoption stories because they so much mirror what’s happening all around.
Our first stray cat had to be put down immediately due to late stage feline leukemia, which most strays have (I’m told by my vet) if they’re out for very long. So the next one was a newcomer to our yard. He looked young and he appeared right after a Facebook poster said a man (in a nearby town I won’t name) known for trapping and dumping cats had just taken a batch to Collinsville. I don’t know how the poster knew and don’t know if our cat was part of that batch, but coincidentally we got him before he had leukemia and in time to vaccinate and schedule for neuter.
We also adopted two pups a couple of months ago from Facebook connections and encountered another coincidence. On the way to pick them up near Kiowa, we got lost. On the wrong road, at the wrong house, we knocked at the door and met the people. They told us we were at the wrong place but, what do you know, they too had a dumped litter of puppies right in their house. Fortunately, theirs were all spoken for and they sent us on our way to the right place, where we got our own two adorable dumpees.
For what else I can do about stray control, I will have to heed advice of those who know a lot more than I do. I’ll promote city led spay/neuter efforts in whatever form they come, and I’ll throw in that there’s an important role for euthanasia of sick strays within any program. I hope we all care enough, and are tough enough, to get something off the ground and not be discouraged by the system.
In Collinsville we have steadfast working organizations and dedicated people available to help design a sensible and humane stray animal program — but to get it started, what do we need to put together that City Council can vote on?
Marilyn Stokes was a public school teacher in Fort Worth for 15 years and subsequently worked at KERA public television for four years. She retired after 15 years at Ford Motor Company, Southwest Region.