Our journey to change Dallas Animal Services started in 2012 with Tasha’s dog pack story. Gypsy Dog Ops was born out of the need to help the injured feral dog, Tasha the husky, and to make sure Dallas Animal Services (DAS) policy was changed to reflect a more humane and effective Field Services program. Our blog documents long running neighborhood dog pack issues as well as documents the challenges and roadblocks residents face when using the current DAS system to address loose, aggressive, feral, or hard to catch dogs. Gypsy Dog Ops has made it part of our mission to help the neighborhood and the city resolve loose, feral, and hard to catch dogs and dogs packs through efforts to educate city leaders and residents towards positive collaboration and long term solutions.
Animal issues are the number one complaint heard by city council members across the city. Loose animals, aggressive animals, dumped animals, unvaccinated and unneutered animals are all part of the challenges facing our city. These issues are often associated with high crime rates and quality of life issues and they make our neighborhoods, schools, tourist areas, and targeted areas of economic development unsafe. In order to address animal issues across Dallas, the city must properly fund Dallas Animal Services. DAS must include animal CONTROL in their goals and service model. In order to do this DAS must revamp their best practices to reflect modern behaviorally sound field services and adopt a model of prevention, intervention, and enforcement. Without this change and evaluation, animal issues cannot be fully addressed.
Below is a collection of our blog posts from our first meeting with the Dallas Animal Services and the City of Dallas to our Oak Cliff Animal Initiative meeting we held last spring. We’ll keep posting – it will take all of us to enact change!
Advocate – Educate – Volunteer – Foster – Adopt – Donate – Report Loose Dogs – Support a City Wide Spay and Neuter Culture
