COLUMN: ECSO and animal control

Submitted photo.

Ellis County Sheriff Johnny Brown.

There’ve been a couple of animal control calls in the news lately and most of you probably read or saw on TV where we helped the SPCA of Texas with removing a large number of animals near Waxahachie. It wasn’t long after that we assisted Italy PD at the scene of a removal in their jurisdiction.

A significant part of our time and budget is involved with animal control. We’ve got two animal control officers and they stay busy with impounding stray dogs, investigating animal bites and investigating complaints of animal cruelty. When loose livestock’s involved, if we can locate the owner, our animal control officers will typically help them in getting those head put back up. If we can’t find where they belong, our officers have to impound them. Here shortly, we’ll have a better place to keep them because we’re putting in some new pipe pens to replace the old wooden pens that are simply worn out. We’ve been able to keep the cost down on these new pens by using inmate labor.

Animal control is a service that’s needed but it does come at a cost. One way livestock owners can help us manage the cost is by maintaining their fences. Keeping your horses, cattle and other animals in their pastures and pens helps lower the number of unnecessary loose livestock calls we receive. And, if you didn’t know, Ellis County is no longer an open range county – and it hasn’t been so in years. What that means is owners can be held responsible for any damages their livestock cause if they get out.

Keep an eye on your animals and check on them often because you don’t want to figure out you’re missing them months down the road. When we pick up livestock, there’s a legal notice that’s published on the county’s website at www.co.ellis.tx.us. State law says livestock must be held 18 days before they can go to sale. The law also allows us the option to award animals to a nonprofit on the 15th day of impoundment. This past week we had an equine rescue group contact us about a 23-year-old Arabian stallion that was found several weeks ago abandoned and loose after his owner died a few months back. We checked their paperwork out and he now has a new home through them.

Let me encourage you, if you own any type of livestock in Ellis County, to take advantage of our free cowdex service. This is the database we’ve set up where we keep owner contact information and animal descriptions. When we’re notified about loose livestock, the cowdex is a primary tool we use to get those animals back where they belong. It takes your help, however, in keeping it up to date. With the exception of dogs and cats, you can list all of your animals on it along with the address where you have them and contact numbers. It’s an easy process to get your information into the cowdex. You can submit it online through a link on our website, www.elliscountysheriff.com, or you can write it all down and drop it off at your Sheriff’s Office, 300 S. Jackson St., Waxahachie. If you want to mail it in, you can send the information to this same address.

If you live out in the county and you’ve got a dog that’s come up missing, be sure and contact the Ellis County SPCA to check if it’s there. We’ve got a contract with the SPCA and any stray dogs our animal control officers pick up are taken to the SPCA. Owners have 72 hours to claim their dogs or they’re considered abandoned under the law. At that point, the dogs become the property of the SPCA, which can then put the dog up for adoption. You can contact the SPCA at 972-935-0756 or send them an email at office@elliscountyspca.org.

Your sheriff’s office is here to assist you with animal control-related issues. If you need to speak to one of our animal control officers, you can do that by calling our non-emergency dispatch number at 972-937-6060. Our dispatchers are on duty 24/7 to help you.

Please, everyone, let’s keep our military and service personnel in our thoughts and prayers. We enjoy our rights and freedoms because of their service and safekeeping of our great nation. Y’all have a Blessed Week.

Johnny Brown has served as Sheriff of Ellis County since Jan. 1, 2009, and is a graduate of the National Sheriff’s Institute. He has been in law enforcement for more than 20 years and holds a Master’s Peace Officer’s Certificate with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education.