The question is part of our Curious Texas project that invites you to join in our reporting process. The idea is simple: You have questions, and our journalists track down the answers.
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The recent mauling of a South Dallas woman served as the latest reminder of the citys longstanding struggles with loose dogs.
For many residents in southern Dallas, loose dogs are a part of life — a frightening one. Some walk around with sticks or other blunt objects in case they encounter dogs.
Natalie Valles of Forney wanted to know why. Specifically, she asked Curious Texas: Why are there so many stray dogs in Texas?
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Curious Texas is an ongoing project from The Dallas Morning News that invites you to join in our reporting process. The idea is simple: You have questions, and our journalists track down the answers.
Natalie became curious after she came to Texas from Wisconsin about a decade ago. Driving into Dallas every day near Fair Park, she was always struck by the number of dogs wandering freely about. She never saw anything like it back where she grew up.
Valles said she doesnt just think its Dallas; her sister has noticed the same problems in the Houston area, where she runs Lolas Lucky Day, a dog-rescue group.
“The problem seems worse in the bigger cities,” Valles said.
Loose dogs in Dallas certainly have caught the publics attention in recent years, and The News has written frequently about the issues both in news stories and editorials.
In 2016, a Boston Consulting Group study found that around 8,700 loose dogs roamed South Dallas on any given day. And those arent really strays — most are owned, but run freely anyway. The dogs that attacked the woman last week were owned, too, but were able to easily escape the unsecured fence.
We asked Stephen Edison, the man who conducted the study, why Dallas has such a seemingly higher population of loose dogs than other places.
“The first question is: do we?” Edison said.
While conducting the study, Edison said he couldnt find any other city that had done a similar census of loose dogs.
In that way, the problems in Dallas might sound worse because the city actually tried to put a number to it. Dallas also has the visual problem: The dogs are concentrated primarily in impoverished areas south of Interstate 30.
Several politicians have drawn attention to the issue over the years, and Dallas Animal Services had seen significant growth in its budget. Mayor Mike Rawlings made addressing the loose-dog problems part of his GrowSouth priorities. In 2015, he told The News that in the areas that werent ready for growth, “there seems to be a lot of dogs around.”
Edison said hes heard plenty of anecdotes and seen enough news stories in other cities to believe they have the same problems.
Bonnie Beaver, a professor at Texas A&Ms College of Veterinary Medicine, said she also doesnt buy the idea that other cities inside or outside Texas dont have loose dog problems.
“Its very common in other cities,” Beaver said. “Most have no idea on the number of dogs, much less the number of free-roaming dogs.”
Beaver said Valles might not have lived in an area where she saw the loose dogs often. And often, what draws the publics attention to loose dogs is something horrific in the news, she said.
Dallas has certainly had that. In 2016, Antoinette Brown was mauled by a pack of dogs. She later died. The injuries she sustained and the graphic description of the attack — Browns mother said the dogs ripped into her like they were “eating a steak” — made national headlines.
But if you plug a city into a search engine and search for loose-dog attacks, youll probably find a startling headline in the last few years like the ones youve seen in Dallas.
Here are some of them:
But lets, for a moment — in the absence of evidence either way — accept the premise that maybe Texas has a higher concentration of loose dogs than all these other places.
One reason could be weather: dogs that run around freely in the Wisconsin winter might not live long.
Vana Hammond, who leads the mayors GrowSouth efforts, said culture could be another reason. People may feed dogs without really feeling they own them. And among some Texans, dogs could be considered more like property to some, whereas in other places they could be considered more as part of the family.
Valles said she also believes “there is a different mentality” in Texas than in Wisconsin, but she doesnt know why.
Lara Cottingham with Houstons Administration & Regulatory Affairs Department said cultural differences regarding dogs in a “high-turnover diverse population” there contribute to the problem because among some people, “letting your dogs run loose is perfectly normal.”
She also said having open spaces, the areas bayou network and the weather are factors, too.
Regardless of the reason, Ed Jamison, the still-new director of Dallas Animal Services, said last week that too many people in Dallas think its acceptable to let dogs run around off leash. He said even in his downtown apartment, he once had a Great Dane walk right through his door, unattended.
Hes hoping for stricter laws and education efforts change the culture.
But theres another cultural reason: Why should anyone call 911 if they feel ignored by the city?
Edison said the problem, whatever the scope, had been allowed to go on for too long. Private and public efforts, such as a private spay-neuter campaign and new Dallas Animal Services strategies, seem to be having an effect.
Edison and others say any loose dog issues can’t be left unattended anymore. Questions like Valles’ should be asked and addressed.
“We are a city that has a north-south divide in many ways, which is getting attention now, which is fantastic,” he said. “This is a real topic that should be addressed if were going to improve quality of life for southern Dallas.”
“Free Puppies” will be released on DVD — and as video-on-demand on Apple and Amazon — on Dec. 13. The heroes of the film are Monda Wooten, Ruth Smith and Ann Brown, three pet rescuers who live in the area where Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia meet. Their work to remedy local animal suffering is the narrative lens through which the film considers this regionwide problem.
“Free Puppies” follows the women as they collect unwanted litters; take in strays; persuade people to surrender neglected pets; bathe infested puppies with flea shampoo; even pick up animals from their homes, take them to a veterinary hospital or mobile clinic to be spayed or neutered, and return them to their owners at no charge.
When Ms. Smith returns to the trailers in the woods to pick up four more dogs needing vaccines and surgery, the brothers are reluctant to part with their pets, even overnight. “We’re going to take care of your babies,” she promises. “Please,” one of them answers, fighting back tears.
Only a fraction of the needy pets here are cute enough or young enough to be easily placed this way — often based solely on a rescue organization’s website or social media feeds. So “Adopt, don’t shop” has become a national mantra among pet rescue advocates working desperately to reduce the number of animals euthanized in overcrowded shelters or left to starve on their own. Most of those doomed pets live in the South.
Widespread animal relocation began in 2005 in response to Hurricane Katrina, according to Karen Walsh, the senior director of animal relocation at the A.S.P.C.A. “When we saw how many people were willing to step up and help an animal that had lost their home in Katrina, that idea grew,” she says in the film. “Animals started to flow across the country.”
Now Zheutlin cant imagine life without a dog, and hes become so driven by the issue of stray dogs that hes written two books about it. He tells Here & Nows Lisa Mullins the number of stray dogs has “cascaded out of control” in some parts of the U.S.
Stray dogs also present safety issues when they roam in packs, causing traffic accidents, attacking residents and spreading disease. WHO estimates nearly 55,000 people die from rabies every year.
Spay and neuter laws that vary by state have also driven the increase of abandoned dogs, especially in more rural, southern states.
“These shelters, theyre dealing with an incredibly difficult problem where they may have a shelter that can hold 100 dogs, and every week a hundred more strays are coming in,” Zheutlin says. “And where do they go?”
In Houston, Texas, alone, there are more than 1 million stray dogs, according to the citys pet shelter, BARC. After Hurricane Harvey hit this summer, thousands of dogs were rescued from floodwaters.