Brownsville animal shelter lacks funding

 The commotion began under Michelle Cano’s truck. She had heard loud barking in the driveway while feeding her cats, and when she checked beneath her vehicle, she saw what looked like two pit bulls attacking her neighbor’s cat.

Cano ran inside and triggered the car alarm from her garage in an effort to scare the animals away. She even shot at one with her 10-year-old son’s pellet gun and called the police.

But it was useless, Cano said — the dogs mauled the milk-white feline then moved into her front yard, where they mangled the family’s two gray-striped kittens. She and her son could only watch from a bedroom window.

"It was the worst thing you could possibly ever see," her son, Dalton St. Romain Cano, wrote in his journal later that evening. "It was like you were in a nightmare or a horror movie."

But these days, the Brownsville Animal Regulation and Care Center, which encompasses the city’s animal shelter and clinic, is having a hard time controlling the number of stray cats and dogs on the streets, animal advocates said. Strapped for resources, it has just five animal control officers to respond to calls, and emergencies like Cano’s, in a city with a pet population estimated in the tens of thousands.

Its shelter is too small to keep the dozens of animals taken in every day, and it does not have the personnel at its clinic to provide more spaying and neutering procedures, much less the funding to raise residents’ awareness of the importance of fixing their pets, animal advocates said.

The center "has long outgrown that shelter … and it needs officers and those officers need vehicles," said Tessie Sarmiento, who serves on the board of the Brownsville Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "(Center employees) are trying their best and doing a good job with the resources they have, but there are a lot of shortcomings in funding."

When the dogs trampled through Cano’s yard about two weeks ago, she said police officers arrived at her home but did not stop the animals from killing the kittens because they were not attacking a person.

The police report does not state the attack was ongoing when the police officers arrived, and Brownsville police Sgt. Juan Lopez said officers would intervene if a dog were to threaten the public safety.

Cano said police officers waited for animal control officers. But the animal center, which is located on FM 511 in Olmito, receives about 100 calls daily and only has one employee to route the calls and dispatch the animal control officers, said Arturo Martinez, the animal center’s supervisor.

By the time animal control officers arrived at Cano’s home, the owner of the dogs had taken his pets back home. Animal control officers cited him for letting them escape but could not save Cano’s pets.

"People want a quick response, but we just can’t," Martinez said.

This month, the center was more understaffed than usual after one of six animal technicians quit for personal reasons and another was fired, he said. Animal technicians feed, groom and care for the pets.

The shelter takes in 30 to 40 animals daily, whether they are picked up as strays by animal control officers or dropped off by owners who no longer want their pets, said Nellie Zamora, the shelter’s supervising animal technician.

"We are shorthanded," Zamora said. "We need people here every day, even on holidays, to feed and take care of the animals."

The shelter, which is the only facility in Brownsville to house such animals, has about 90 dog kennels and more than 65 kennels. It’s animal control officers only service the Brownsville area but, because of its location in Olmito, animals from as far as Harlingen and McAllen often end up being taken in, Martinez said.

Sometimes animals are doubled up — even tripled up — in kennels to make more room for more and to give them a longer chance of being adopted, Zamora said.

Owners have 72 hours to claim their pets before they are put up for adoption or at last resort euthanized, Zamora said. Each year the shelter adopts out about 1,500 animals and euthanizes another 5,000-6,000.

Animal rescue groups have long grappled with the shelter’s small size, animal advocates said. Mayor Pat M. Ahumada Jr. pushed for the center to become a no-kill zone for 90 days during late 2007 but could not continue the moratorium because there was not enough room to hold all the dogs and cats.

The size of the shelter was established back in 1991 and was based on the capacity of the old one, which was once located on Military Highway, animal advocates said. But the city has not had the funds to expand the shelter on FM 511 to account for Brownsville’s growth.

Animal rescue groups estimate that there are now 42,000 cats and 36,000 dogs, strays and pets, throughout the city. But health authorities believe those numbers are probably higher since each household is allowed to have up to three pets and Brownsville’s population, which last stood at 172,437 people in 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is expanding rapidly.

Ahumada, who is well-known for his love of dogs, said he offered solutions as part of his mayoral platform in 2007. One included a $3 fee, added to Brownsville residents’ public utility bills, which would go to the city’s fine arts, public safety department and the animal center. But the proposal was not passed.

Now animal rescue groups must pick up the tab to control Brownsville’s animal population and inform the public of the importance of spaying and neutering.

"We have a cultural problem here that needs to be changed through education," the mayor said.

But City Manager Charlie Cabler said departments across the city are struggling under the current economic climate and animal shelter employees need to be resourceful.

"It is what we do with what we have that counts," Cabler said.

Residents also must play their part by keeping pets off the streets, he said.

A municipal court judge can fine people $1-$2,000 for not keeping animals on their property. Most fines are set at $220.

Cano said she just hopes it is not her little boy outside next time any dogs are on the loose.

"We are afraid," she said. "What if the owner had not come out? Do we have to let 10 animals die before we do something?"

For further information about the animal shelter call: 956-544-7351

ANIMAL NUMBERS

Rescue groups estimate Brownsville’s pet and stray animal population at 42,000 cats and 36,000 dogs.

On average, the city’s animal shelter takes in 30-40 animals every day — and 5 to 10 animals belonged to owners who no longer wanted their pets.

Brownsville’s animal shelter has about 90 dog kennels and more than 65 cat kennels.

Owners have 72 hours to claim their pets at the shelter before they are put up for adoption or euthanized.

It costs $70 to adopt a cat or dog at the animal shelter.

It costs $70 to spay or neuter a pet at the city’s animal clinic located next to the shelter.

Brownsville’s animal shelter euthanizes 5,000-6,000 animals yearly and adopts out about 1,500.

It could cost you anywhere from $1 to $2,000 for letting your pets run loose — the municipal court fine is usually $220.

Brownsville Animal Regulation and Care Center Budget

Fiscal year 2010

Brownsville Animal Control Center $824,082

Brownsville Animal Clinic $187, 530

Total city budget $87,740,002

Amended (actual) budget 2009

Brownsville Animal Control Center $887,092

Brownsville Animal Clinic $195, 712

Total city budget $95,061,853

Amended (actual) budget 2008

Brownsville Animal Control Center $842,855

Brownsville Animal Clinic $151,966

Total city budget $93,604,998