The Magnolia city board could decide to put a full-time animal control officer on the payroll tonight after several discussions about the danger of stray dogs have surfaced in recent months.
In the meantime, stray dogs considered to be the most dangerous are taken to a veterinarian and euthanized or shot dead as an interim solution to the problem.
Officials say people are dropping dogs off inside city limits, and some strays are coming in from the rural areas for food. Their numbers have continued to grow, Mayor Anthony Witherspoon said.
Without an animal shelter in town, Magnolia police officer Brent Mullins has been the principal animal control officer.
If he cannot find a home for the animals, the dog is either brought to a vet and put down or shot, Police Chief Ray Reynolds said.
“We don’t have the resources. Officer Mullins has been doing his best. He’s taken many of the animals to his own house, fed them and taken care of them. It’s a job bigger than him, though. And we don’t have the resources available to deal with it,” Reynolds said, adding that every dog that is put down is done so “as humanely as possible.”
Alderman Mercedes Ricks made waves with the topic last week when she went to the Pike County Board of Supervisors and called for action on a county animal shelter. She also disclosed Magnolia’s practice of dealing with strays.
Witherspoon said he has discussed the issue with McComb Mayor Whitney Rawlings and even called the Attorney General’s office to figure out what state law has to say about Magnolia’s practice of handling strays.
According to state statute, “it shall be the duty of any sheriff, conservation officer or peace officer of a county or municipality to kill or otherwise destroy any and all dogs above the age of three months found running at large on whose neck there is no such collar and tag.”
The statute stipulates the department must hold the dog for five days before putting it down.
That has been the unwritten policy of Magnolia in dealing with the packs of wild dogs.
Concerned citizens say strays have killed “hundreds” of pets in the city and terrorized residents.
The board Monday considered providing the police department with a vehicle to transport the dogs.
But just where they would go is another unanswered question.
“If we provide the police department with a vehicle to deal with this, just where will the dogs be taken? We’re not sure right now,” Witherspoon said.
Funding is another key issue, he noted.
“I think people know how important of an issue this is. But to build a shelter takes money, and no one wants to raise taxes. It’s a Catch 22.”
Witherspoon said the city is looking into being more proactive with spaying and neutering stray animals to curb the population. He said it costs roughly $100 for a dog under 100 pounds to get fixed. With a growing pack of dogs, that cost could quickly go up, the mayor said.
“People want a solution to this problem. But they don’t want their taxes raised to deal with it,” he said.
Witherspoon noted the last animal control policy that the city took on was written in 1978.
“It’s outdated. We’ll have to make some changes to it, make some amendments, but for now state statute supercedes what the city has in place,” he said.
Toward the end of the meeting, concerned citizens told about their experiences.
A self-described animal lover, David Rosa said he carries a .380 pistol, mace and even a slingshot with him when he walks his dogs.
Rosa said the stray dogs have killed his pets in the past. He believes the problem is countywide and places the answer to the problem there.
“I’ve had rabbits, kittens, ducks and dogs. They’ve killed them all,” he said. “This is a Pike County issue. Many of these dogs are coming in from the county and they’re being dropped off here. So everyone needs to deal with it, not just Magnolia.”
June Wichers said her fellow churchgoers are afraid to come to church because they have been confronted by “growling, vicious dogs” on the way to worship.
Ricks said she’s an unlikely target of the criticism. She said the dogs have killed nine of her 12 cats.
“I have five dogs, all rescued. If you could see the change in how they look from then to now — I love animals. They are my family,” she said.
But the volume of stray dogs that the city is facing is too much for a shelter to hold, Ricks said, adding that current shelters are already full.
There’s also an uncomfortable reality that many citizens don’t want to face — not all dogs get adopted.
“People don’t realize most animals aren’t taken home from shelters, especially the older ones and the strays that are undomesticated,” she said.
“What do you do with them? There’s no space, and in my opinion, being locked up in a cage for years is not humane,” she said.
The larger problem of what to do with the dogs remains to be answered, but the board is expected to address the first steps tonight.
