Pet owners be aware, changes afoot

McALLEN —  Hoping to thin the city’s ever-growing population of strays and the rising cost of killing the animals, the city passed a new ordinance earlier this week to encourage dog and cat owners to fix their pets.

While the ordinance passed Monday by the City Commission does not require pet owners to spay or neuter, it cuts fines to loose animals picked up by the city and by reduces the cost of licensing spade and neutered animals.

The new measure also requires pet sellers to be licensed by the city and subject to inspections, among a host of other measures city commissioners said could help save the city money while making sure animals are treated humanely.

“On the economics side, it’s just a reasonable thing to do,” said Commissioner John Ingram, who spearheaded the effort. “On the compassionate side, you just feel bad for all the homeless dogs and animals.”

Ingram said the ordinance is a first of its kind in Hidalgo County, where the stray problem is rampant and cost the city more than $180,000 in 2008 — about $50,000 more than five years earlier, Ingram said.

The ordinance also requires that tied up dogs have access to food, water and shelter and that the leash be at least 10 feet long or five times the length of the dog.

The new measure also expands the requirements for keeping an animal the city has deemed vicious and defines breeding a dog to fight as cruelty.

City commissioners said the effort to reduce strays would only be successful if other Valley cities are on board. While McAllen has long banned curbside selling of animals and their sale at flea markets, other cities tolerate both practices which Darin Landrum, the executive director of the Palm Valley Animal Center.

He estimates that nine out of 10 dogs sold on the side of the road end up at his shelter. Palm Valley, the only facility in Hidalgo County to legally take in strays, averages from 100 to 150 new animals a day.

“You don’t know what you’re getting,” Landrum said of the curbside dogs. “I call them Trojan horse dogs. You don’t know what’s inside.”

Ingram said he will take the ordinance to officials at the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council, where he is president. He hopes other cities will follow McAllen’s lead.

Rick Sandoval, owner of Rick’s Pet Shop in McAllen, welcomed the new ordinance, saying it would prevent heinous practices among pet shops. He recalled Jesse’s Pet Shop, a store that deceptively sold sick puppies by claiming they were up-to-date on their vaccinations. The owner of the shop Jesus “Jesse” Vazquez lost a lawsuit to the Texas Attorney General’s Office for selling the diseased animals.

“You can’t sell dogs like that,” he said.

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Sean Gaffney covers McAllen, education, business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.