Stray dogs and dog attacks have been an ongoing problem across the Houston area.
This week, one area in particular that is dealing with them is parts of Liberty County.
Monday night, KPRC 2′s Deven Clarke brought you the story about a neighborhood off Rd 5203 in the Cleveland area dealing with a group of feral dogs that have attacked multiple people since they came to the neighborhood about two and a half months ago.
Animal behaviorist Lisa Tynan says in her decade-long career in Houston, this has been a problem the entire time—and not just in Liberty County but in other areas as well.
“There’s a direct line from the “save-them-all” mentality to this crisis, because these are animals that are being left on the street to suffer and these are multi-generational feral animals, they’re born, grow up, breed, suffer and then perish on the streets,” she said. “We need to have some type of recourse, and we need to be enabling our animal control, animal enforcement officers to do their public safety job and to get these animals away from our communities who are very much in danger.”
In Liberty County specifically, there is no county animal control department or officer. There are animal control units in Dayton and Liberty, but deputies with the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office answer calls for dog attacks if those units in the cities are unavailable.
“It boggles the mind that an area as large as Liberty County does not have animal control and I know some of the smaller cities do have, but it is generally one officer and you can’t possibly respond to all the calls that are being made,” she said.
She urged people to contact and talk to government officials in the area.
“And if they are not listening, run for office, take those jobs [from] the people who aren’t protecting their community,” she said.
As for how to protect yourself, Tynan recommends to always assume the worst if a dog is approaching you and to maintain distance since you won’t be able to always tell if a dog is friendly or not.
“There are some tools that you can have,” she said.
While she doesn’t recommend pepper spray since you could likely hit yourself in the process, she said if you feel like you should have something like that, bear spray is a good option since it can shoot a long distance.
“Carry really stinky treats, if the dog isn’t quite attacking you but is a little too close for comfort, you can scatter the treats and distract them,” she said.
If dogs are approaching you, Tynan says you shouldn’t run as that will activate a dog’s prey drive.
“If you have a dog or small child with you, if you can avoid picking them up, that will just cause the dog to start jumping up at your face, you want to be very still, quiet and calm and put something between you and that dog, a car, a fence, space, anything that you can calmly do to get away from these attacking dogs and call for help if you can, because one person against one or many dogs is at a severe disadvantage,” she said.
For other dogs, Tynan recommends something called a coyote vest or collar. She says the most vulnerable area in a dog attack for both dogs and people is the neck area so protecting that is critical.
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