A recent social media post told of a cruel scene in the small North Texas town of Valley View: Someone in a truck pulled over to the side of a road, forced a dog out of the vehicle, and sped off. The puppy chased the truck as it sped toward the interstate, but the animal soon gave up.
The person who posted the sign, the only witness, said he yelled at the dog ditcher to stop, but couldn’t get the license plate number. She asked the public for help, but when local owners arrived at the scene, the dog was gone.
Unfortunately, dog abandonment is increasing across Texas as animal shelters operate at or beyond capacity and pet owners struggle to make ends meet, experts say.
A new state law could help. Bans anyone convicted of animal neglect or other cruelty charges from owning companion animals for five years. The possession ban, which went into effect in September, was authored by Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano, and supported by several law enforcement officials who rightly pointed out the link between animal cruelty and violence against humans .
But much more must be done. Animal abandonment, a class A misdemeanor, is especially on the rise on rural roads, where there are often few witnesses. “This is truly becoming a crisis of epic proportions as we watch our rural counties grow and explode,” Shelby Bobosky, executive director of the Texas Humane Legislation Network, told us.
Bobosky said his organization has traveled the state educating judges and prosecutors about the new law. He also traveled to several rural counties to advise local sheriffs, overwhelmed by dog abandonment in their jurisdictions, on ways to help mitigate the problem. Many put up signs warning of the criminal consequences of abandoning animals. Others are placing hidden wildlife cameras in problem areas, or encouraging landowners to do so, in the hopes of catching perpetrators in the act.
However, often the only evidence of an abandoned dog is the dog itself, wandering across a pasture or road in search of food and water. If you are lucky enough to be picked up by a good Samaritan, there are few shelters to take you in. And many have already exceeded their limits.
That is the case everywhere. Dallas Animal Services, for example, reported this week that it was at 139% capacity. And the Texas SPCA facility is “packed with animals, including an influx of puppies and kittens, unlike anything we’ve seen in the past 15 years,” spokesperson Maura Davies told us in an email.
Bobosky, also an adjunct law professor at Southern Methodist University, said many rural counties don’t have any shelters, something she hopes the next Legislature will address. We also.
Texans should know that leaving an unwanted dog on the side of the road has consequences. But they also need humane alternatives to giving up a pet.
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