What Cities in Texas Have the Worst Animal Control Problems?

Determining cities in Texas with animal control problems requires a central database of abandoned animals, euthanize animals and wild animal infestation issues. However, this is yet to be accomplished. Texas has a few cities with that high numbers of animals euthanized and other common animal control problems.

  1. San Antonio

    • San Antonio, Tex., had high hopes for reducing its animal kill numbers. In one year, the city expects to euthanize more than 21,000 cats and dogs, or 400 animals each week annually. The city set out to change its animal control problem through education, penalties and grants for reduced or free sterilization. None of this has made much of a dent. Only about 35 percent of adoptable pets are being saved and given a home in San Antonio.

    Waco

    • The number of animals a city shelter puts down is not the only indicator of animal control problems. One time, the wrong animal was put to sleep despite having loving owners waiting out a mandatory quarantine. Waco Humane Society did this even though an officer who brought the dogs in did not mark them as strays and the owner called for several days to check on her pets. Somehow a paperwork mix-up resulted in the two pit bulls being killed prior to the end of the quarantine period. This is a problem with the Waco Humane Society's operational procedures.

    El Paso

    • In El Paso, an exiting city representative once admitted he could have done more to address the animal control problems of his city. More than 20,000 animals are put down annually in a city that is about one-third the size of San Antonio. Rounding up these animals, holding them, and putting them down costs taxpayers $2 million per year.

    Puppy Mills- Montgomery County

    • Laws passed governing the selling of puppies in big cities has caused a major problem for some Texas counties. Montgomery County, just outside of Houston, is now dealing with large numbers of road side vendors offering animals for sale. Legislatures believe the animals are produced only for profit, from puppy mills. This practice leads to impulse purchases and eventually abandoned animals that wind up in the Montgomery County Animal Shelter, which has a 44 percent euthanization rate. In one recent year, that equaled an approximate 10,500 unwanted animal deaths.