{"id":8111,"date":"2016-05-27T20:52:36","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T20:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/?p=8111"},"modified":"2016-05-28T02:49:32","modified_gmt":"2016-05-28T02:49:32","slug":"why-are-dallas-citizens-at-risk-from-loose-dogs-on-a-daily-basis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/?p=8111","title":{"rendered":"A call to action for Antoinette Brown this Memorial Day weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s talk about safety and quality of life. Despite that the City is claiming that the crisis level animal issues are getting better, dog bite reports are trending up in a big way. The City of Dallas is #9 in population nationally, but we are now #3 in the United States Postal Services rankings for dog bites against postal workers<\/a>.<\/strong> That\u2019s saying a lot about the scope and scale of the dangerous dog issue plaguing our City.<\/p>\n

For the last few months we have been analyzing dog bite reports and so has the Dallas Morning News. The numbers are frightening. Dog bites are up 30% last year and 60% this year. If you live in District 1, you live in an area where, on average, there are 15\u00a0dogs bites per square mile. Think about that. Ever walk or ride your bike that far? Hang out in your front yard with your kids? Fifteen\u00a0(15) dog bites per square mile<\/strong>. (based on DPD dog bite records from 2009-April 2016)<\/p>\n

Additionally, District 1 is ranked #2 out of 14 districts for dog bites per square mile<\/strong>. Our District has been reporting and asking for help with animal issues for the last three-four years and we have been ignored and told by Dallas Animal Services (DAS) to leave the issues to the experts. Well, the \u201cexperts\u201d just don\u2019t get it. They refuse to see the urgency of this issue, they refuse to look at the data, and they discount\u00a0the pleas of the citizens.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s Dallas Morning News interactive news article and research <\/a>aligns with our research and they have found that \u201cnothing City Hall has done over the last eight years has reduced the number of 311 bite calls; that number has hovered between about 1,500 and 1,750 annually\u201d, BUT the numbers have \u201ctrended upward in the last three years\u201d under Jody Jones\u2019 leadership.<\/p>\n

This trend is an important point as our neighborhoods have been telling Jones directly, in person, for three years that the loose dogs are a dangerous quality of life issue here in Oak Cliff. We have been asking for help, letting her know our citizens are being bitten at alarming rates, and we have been told that our requests to have loose dogs picked up are unreasonable.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, over the last several years, DAS management has changed several policies about picking up loose dogs. This has resulted in 15,000 loose dog calls to 311 going undispatched last year. You know the drill, you call to report a loose dog and 311 will tell you that no one is coming. The animals will be left to roam free until they attack or injure a person, are injured themselves, or a citizen captures them. Then and only then will DAS come out to help, maybe. Where is the animal control in that equation?<\/p>\n

DAS tells the public they do \u201csmart sweeps\u201d once a month to address those loose dogs. We have several kinds of data to back up that DAS does not do them in any kind of meaningful way. We have seen several generations of street puppies born from the dogs that are supposedly addressed through sweeps. Multiple generations of pack dog in urban neighborhoods would indicate that \u201csmart sweeps\u201d are not working or effective. We also have the month to\u00a0month 311 call data analysis the sweeps are based on, the dogs are not being picked up.<\/p>\n

The shelter stopped picking up the garden variety loose dogs according to Jody Jones because, \u201cit was not worth the return on investment\u201d. They wanted to spend time addressing loose owned dogs, a dog where they had a known address to talk to the owners about getting into compliance. DAS claims that most of the 311 calls are about loose owned dogs, but the 311 data provided by the City does not support that claim. According to data, \u00a0most 311 calls are about garden variety loose dogs. Via their policy, the\u00a0City is just leaving those dogs on the street to continue to roam and breed.<\/p>\n

With this policy change, more unaddressed loose dogs are on the street than ever. Those loose dogs continue to breed at alarming rates (see # 6 in the DMN article<\/a>). Jones supporter and Animal Advisory Commissioner, Judy Burnett, in a recent commission meeting adamantly stated that dog issues are not worse now than before. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we have a bunch of feral dogs out there\u201d. Apparently, she does not look at data, listen to the City Council, visit Paul Quinn College, the VA hospital, or our southern neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Over Jones\u2019 tenure at DAS, this breeding explosion has resulted in safety and quality of life issues for tax paying citizens. We acknowledge, loose dog issues are documented as far back as the 1800s, but never have they been at this level. In modern times, no citizen was mauled to death and eaten alive by a pack of dogs until now. This tragic event happened under Jones\u2019 leadership.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 disconnected leadership has repeatedly dismissed the public and their needs, dismissed request of Council, and ignored the exploding street dog population. Jones will argue the merits of categorizing a loose dogs as \u201cowned\u201d or \u201cstray\u201d and then argue the merit of leaving the stray on the street to focus on education initiatives.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure any of us care if the 6-7 loose dogs that mauled Antoinette Brown <\/a>were “loose owned” or just \u201cloose”. But it is worth nothing that if anyone made a 311 call about those dogs ahead of Ms Brown death <\/a>and didn\u2019t know if the dogs were owned, the City had 30 days to think about doing sweep if they did one at all. Based on information shared in a public meeting by a DAS employee, DAS was not doing sweeps at all earlier this year during the TAI. No surprise to us, we have additional data to back that up as well.<\/p>\n

Last year the Mayor called animal issues a \u201cpriority one crisis level issue\u201d and he has been heard more than once saying that animal issues are blocking his Grow South development. During this ongoing \u201cpriority one crisis\u201d, the direction from City Council was to pick up the loose dogs, but DAS\u00a0has stopped picking up loose dogs at a meaningful level and as a result the shelter intake has dropped while the live release rate has risen. From the Dallas Morning News, \u201cJody Jones, the Animal Services manager, does not believe a drop in shelter intake has led to more dogs on the streets.\u201d Say what?<\/p>\n

During a recent Animal Advisory meeting, a Jones supporter and Animal Advisory Commissioner, JP Bonnelly<\/a>, went on a tirade about how picking up loose dogs solves nothing. Tell that to Antoinette Brown\u2019s family and the 14 people that have been bitten within 2 miles of my house since October.<\/p>\n

This single minded focus on raising the live release rate\u00a0creates\u00a0an obvious barrier to\u00a0pick up loose dogs. \u00a0Hearing this message house over and over while people are suffering and afraid to walk their kids to school, when people are calling for relief and for solutions, it makes sense that citizens in southern Dallas do not have confidence in DAS leadership and the current Animal Advisory Commission to fix the problems at hand.<\/p>\n

If the management can\u2019t align with the needs of the citizens, it makes sense that they would ask for new leadership. It is not personal against the leaders, but it is personal for the citizens: it is their personal safety and quality of life that hangs in the balance. No one leader is worth putting Dallas\u2019 citizens at risk on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

The media agrees. When the city\u00a0acknowledged it missed an opportunity to “identify a pattern of behavior” with the owners of the dogs that mauled Antoinette Brown, who kept bringing in new animals when theirs were taken away, Channel 8 questioned the eleven (11)\u00a0times DAS had been called out to the property and responded with: \u00a0\u201c Eleven times? That’s not missed opportunity. That is straight-up neglect of responsibility. It’s neglect that cost Antoinette Brown, a military veteran, her life.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dallas Morning News editorial board called for the removal of Jody Jones<\/a> from DAS management. They sighted 5 main\u00a0reasons, all of which we agree with.<\/p>\n

From the Dallas Morning News Editorial:<\/p>\n

1.<\/h3>\n

She has stubbornly maintained faith in community outreach as the solution to the loose dog problem. Only under intense pressure did she sign on to a strategy late last year that\u00a0modestly increased enforcement<\/a>. Even last month\u2019s expansion of that plan emphasized educational efforts far more than a commitment to\u00a0pick up dogs and ticket irresponsible owners<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2.<\/h3>\n

Since the deadly May 2 attack, communication from Jones and Dallas Animal Services has been heartless and wrongheaded.<\/p>\n

In an interview Thursday, Jones indicated that, despite Antoinette Brown\u2019s death in South Dallas, she believes her strategy for loose dogs is on the right path and no changes are necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to say it, but people die in traffic fatalities every day, Jones said. \u201cI wish we could be everywhere to everyone, but that just isn\u2019t reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Manager A.C. Gonzalez\u00a0walked that statement back the next day<\/a>\u00a0and announced that Deputy Police Chief Rob Sherwin will now help lead the troubled animal operation.<\/p>\n

So how did Dallas Animal Services respond? With a chirpy email blast and social media message that read:\u00a0\u201cExciting news!!! The City Manager, DPD and PAS partner together on a new venture to strengthen services and communication.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s not exciting news. It\u2019s news that Dallas Animal Services can\u2019t do its job.<\/p>\n

3.<\/h3>\n

Jones and her department rely too much on deflection and excuse-making.<\/p>\n

As we wrote in December<\/a>, City Hall tends to defer to Jones as the shelter and field expert, and her views rule. In turn, Jones invariably responds to questions and criticisms about her strategy with \u201chey, I\u2019m nowhere near the top of this chain of command.\u201d<\/p>\n

4.<\/h3>\n

Jones has\u00a0focused on the shelter\u2019s live release rate\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 that is, the number of dogs that make it out alive \u2014 to the exclusion of common sense.<\/p>\n

We appreciate that the city hired Jones in 2011 with the goal of significantly reducing euthanasia rates. However, the angst \u2014 fed by Jones and some of her supporters \u2014 over what picking up loose dogs may do to the live release rate drowns out these two messages:<\/p>\n