Rv Parks Corpus Christi Texas

City pledges more money to deal with animals on the loose

Matt Ray, a Corpus Christi animal control officer, stepped out of the truck to take a closer look into an overgrown side yard sprinkled with kids' toys. No dog was there, and no one responded to knocks at the front door.

As he shut the gate behind him, a young, skinny black Labrador mix bounded toward him from the street. Ray knelt to give the dog a firm scratch.

"That's a good boy," he said.

The dog had no collar, tags or owner nearby to identify who cared for it. Ray thought for a minute.

If he stopped to pick up every loose dog he saw roaming the streets, he would never make it through the call list. It was 10 a.m., and already the list had grown since he began his shift two hours earlier. It likely would total 100 calls by late afternoon.

Calls about loose dogs fall to the bottom of that list. Injured, abused, neglected and aggressive animals take priority.

No one had reported this dog loose; but it was, and it had come to him. Ray had no choice.

He scooped the dog in his arms and loaded it into a metal cage on the city pickup. There it joined two other dogs also found loose on city streets. They would end up at the city's animal shelter.

For years, the city's animal care and control department has been chronically underfunded, Assistant City Manager Oscar Martinez said.

The city has proposed allocating an additional $80,000 to hire more officers and to cross-train staff so more officers can handle calls. The plan also would outsource animal shelter operations, freeing up additional staff.

The City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a budget recommended by City Manager Ron Olson, which includes additional funding for the department even with an $11.5 million shortfall.

"Even though we knew we had to make cuts, we knew we had to preserve the animal care and neighborhood services because of the desire of the council," Martinez said.

But even with the additional funding, Corpus Christi falls about four times behind the percentage of budgeted funds other Texas cities devote to animal control services. San Antonio, Laredo and Arlington use about 0.8 percent of their budget on animal control.Corpus Christi spends 0.2 percent of its general fund, a level that has remained essentially the same for the last six years, according to an analysis of the caller-Times.

Councillor Kevin Kieschnick, whose riding includes the northern and Calallen, lobbied for additional funding for the department.

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