Would like someone to contact me …you need to hear our story

Shelby did a presentation at the Canton, TX Rotary Club yesterday. Canton has the misfortune of having Dog Alley in the city. We did this presentation to hopefully open the eyes of our city and county leaders on how to make the county of Van Zandt known for animal welfare instead of animal abuse. Animal welfare will take the combined efforts of everyone to improve this situation.

I live in Bee County, Beeville Texas. There is a huge animal problem in Bee County. The Laws in Bee county are Not enforced. I found a beautiful German Shepard down my street malnutrition, abandoned by the people that were renting the home. Reported to Sheriff Department. Nothing has been done. Dogs on my street are tossed like trash, no food no water. When you go into the city of Beeville, One wonders if one is in the USA or Other Country. Have called around looking for Help. Can your organization Help me with this problem.

I named the German Shepard that was abandoned Nyle which I have been feeding her for the past 4 weeks. Need someone to Foster or Adopt.

Would also like the updated laws for animals in Texas, Please email me the Laws for animals. I will take theses Law to the Sheriff Department and the County Commissioner Sammy Farias.


Hope to hear from you,

Telma Sepeda

I was involved for several years rescuing the rehabilitating German Shepherds. The group I volunteered with had a reputation of taking in those, others couldn’t or wouldn’t. Helping those treated so cruelly takes an emotional toll. I believe everyone has a tolerance and once that is breached, you need to step away. It becomes time for someone else to step in and take on that burden. One such boy we named CJ was my preverbal breaking point.


The call came from the Humane Society asking if we could help a cruelty seizure. When first meeting, he looked like most other rescues, he was emaciated, walked a little gingerly. Appearances, did not tell the whole story.


It was upon hearing the initial vetting report that I became physically ill. His gingerly walk was the result of injuries suffered from repeated sexual abuse. Each word from the vet’s mouth caused additional nausea. To the point, I realized my limit of what I could process emotionally had been reached. It was a point in time, I realized I needed help in other ways. That is when I got involved with THLN and their efforts to pass better laws to protect the most innocent among us.


Luckily, CJ’s story has a happy ending. His adoptive family is perfect and his abuser was charged and arrested. While awaiting trial for her crimes, she passed away.

It’s been almost three years since a dog the shelter named “Monty” was on the Euthanasia list at the Harris County Shelter in Houston Tx. His extensions were up and unbeknownst to him, his life was scheduled to end that day at close of business.
I walked into that building convinced I was prepared for the sadness. I was wrong! Walking past the line of people who without a thought or care were surrendering their once family pets. Doing so knowing they most likely wouldn’t make it out of that shelter alive. Seeing the ACO’s driving in with trucks full of more discarded litters, dogs that didn’t meet breeder standards, the dumped and neglected. This place is the house of horrors for any animal or human with a soul. I didn’t make it past the sign-in station before walking out to cry in private. I’ve never felt so helpless, useless, and hurt in my entire life. Just when I convinced myself I couldn’t handle it and had thoughts to bolt. I see this man using his entire body to drag his dog into the shelter on a heavy gauge chain. This dog knew. The smells and negative energy sent his instincts into fight or flight. Still even with the effort to stop his owner, his crying and barking out as pleas to just go back home. This man handed over his chain and told an employee, “I don’t want him anymore, do whatever you need to do with him.” I inquired about the dog while waiting but was told it was said the owner requested he be euthanized. What was left of my broken heart shattered in that moment. I’ve been told a thousand times, “you can’t save them all.” In that moment it became truth.
Crying once again in a room full of strangers, the staff kindly sat me in a private room to wait my turn to meet the handsome boy “Monty” who’s smile won my heart online. I finally walked through the kennel room door to meet Monty and could hear him over every bark and howl in the building. It truly was love at first sight. It’s as if he realized he was safe. My poor boy, his body telling the story so many Houston dogs endure. Emaciated, his skin embedded with bb pellets, a mouth of broken teeth. How could this boy still want to smile or wag his tail with joy? His will to love and be loved through all his pain taught me there is no such thing as a bad dog. After all he had been through, he proved that it’s not the breed but the deed. This dog had been beaten, starved, and shot in his short two years of life. Yet despite his past he is the kindest, most gentle, whimsical dog full of personality and love that I’ve ever been blessed to have in my life. We left his shelter given name of Monty and all his tragic history behind with it. Now named Mr. Wilson, because of his fond attachment to Wilson tennis balls. I promised him for the rest of his years that he will feel everything it means to be loved and never see the house of horrors again.
The day I fell in love with Mr. Wilson is the day I fell in love with Rescue. All shelter dogs, strays, and dogs on chains are Mr. Wilson’s with a tragic story of their own. Every single one is deserving of love and a life outside of pain and neglect. To make that a reality I advocate. I advocate for enforced animal cruelty laws, spay/neuter ordinances, stricter guidelines for breeders, and against puppy-mills and pet stores. I advocate to vote legislators into office that have the best interest of animals top of mind. I advocate for the voiceless. I advocate for change. I advocate for peace. I will advocate until it’s said, “we saved them all.”

In 2005 I was living in Yangon, Myanmar – a very poor country with a huge stray population. I walked to my job and would see so many hungry & sickly “street” dogs. There was one female stray (not aggressive) that I gave pieces of bread. Eventually she had 2 puppies, that I decided to rescue. It was very difficult to catch them (street dogs are naturally very skittish), and I only managed to catch the female, I wasn’t able to catch the male. I got her when she was 3 mo old and named her Jinju (“pearl” in Korean). Jinju was incredibly loyal and devoted, though not cuddly (she was a street dog after all). One night a few months later, I was asleep and she jumped on the bed to wake me (she slept on a bed on the floor of my room). I awoke to find the house filling with water. It was monsoon season and the entire area was flooding fast. I grabbed Jinju and put her on my shoulders, around my neck. My partner grabbed our other street dog, Coco, and did the same. We waded out of the house to our yard – which had become a swimming pool. We then got to the street – which had become a dangerous raging river with all kinds of debris. With dogs (they were medium sized) on our shoulders, we literally swam upstream in complete darkness to higher ground, and safety. Had Jinju not woken me up, I cannot imagine what would have happened if we’d stayed in the house, asleep. Jinju lived with me another 14 years – having to evacuate Myanmar with me (and our other street dog) after a devastating hurricane destroyed the country. That dog was a huge part of my life, my heart….she became very sick this year and I reluctantly euthanized her in March 2019. I have taken in other rescues and have saved other abandoned animals because I believe that every animal deserves a decent life. I am pro-Life in the truest sense – all life is part of Source.

We rescued our dog Cairo qhen she was 5 months. She was found dumped in an ice chest along a county road outside of San Antonio. She was severely malnourished and covered in ticks. Three house moves, 75lbs, eight years and a baby later, she is still with us. We call her our first born and she has been all over the state traveling with us. She has also become a boat/lake dog and loves nothing more than to be cuddled up next to us. We can’t imagine our lives without her in it.


Because we know not all dogs are as fortunate as Cairo, we make monthly donations to rescues. Adopt, don’t shop!

I have always been a big advocate for abused and abandoned animals, and have supported, volunteered and adopted from many shelters from Ft Bend Co, Galveston, Houston and now East Texas (Anderson Co). In Galveston, we had the Feral Cat Program which was awesome, need to implement that in each county throughout Texas. Recently, on October 6, two stray dogs showed up on our farm. They were both females around 7-8 months old in horrible condition, I was able to catch them, but not knowing if they had mange due to their hair loss etc or any other contagious diseases, I took them to my local veterinarian and asked them if there was any faculty or help here in Anderson County for strays or abandoned animals. They said not really, so I asked them if they could look them over and make sure that they weren’t contagious due to my other pets and livestock that we have so I could take them and care for them until I could find a shelter or help for them, since it was late on a Saturday afternoon. Good news per them was it wasn’t contagious mange, but demodex (red mange) and it is treatable, but bad news was they charged me $305, and that was doing me a favor they said. So, I took them home and they said to bring them in once a week for 6 weeks for an injection to cure the demodex. That Monday, I went up to BARC our local shelter and asked them about strays etc and their policy. I told them that the vet said you all would not take them etc, they said not true. So, that following Wednesday, I took them up there so they could vaccinate, worm, spay, micro chip and evaluate them for me since their vet was coming in on that Thursday for clinic rounds. I told them I could pick them up on Monday and keep them so I could pay for their medical care and to see if they will work out here on the farm. They did not charge me for their services, which was nice of them. In return, I sponsored 4 adoptions for them and told them I would help out in anyway that I can in supporting them and their cause here in Anderson County. That following week I took them back to my vet for their weekly shot for their condition, but noticed they had a cough/runny nose. Never said if anything was wrong with them or if we should run tests etc for any infection. So, I asked the shelter who they use that might help me out, so they suggested another vet here in Palestine. Roxy, was running 105 fever so, he put them both on antibiotics and rimadyl for respiratory infection thinking they picked up kennel cough, costing me $189 for that visit, then a week later returned due to Red running fever, changed antibiotics/meds asked if it could be distemper, said maybe, but no further testing done, that visit cost me $158. Then this past Saturday, the 10th took them back in for their treatment and a followup told him that Roxy wasn’t feeling good again, took temp, fever 105, so he put them back on more antibiotics etc, cost $69, that Sunday night, Roxy turned to the worse, Monday morning she couldn’t walk, eyes glassy, body limp and cold, so my husband said lets go back to our other vet and see what he thinks. He said most likely got distemper, then laid blame on shelter dogs and shelters, saying they mean well, but don’t have the resources etc, we had to euthanize them, the only humane thing to do since they were not responding to antibiotics and they were suffering and charged us $250 after all we had spent and done trying to help these poor babies. My heart is peeled with sadness not being able to save Red & Roxy, but my anger lingers on how messed up our animal health care and veterinarians are today. It seems as though they take advantage of people who want and try to help take care and have animals as pets. No wonder there are so many abandoned animals and strays today. If only we had a better means and cost effective way for people to spay, neuter, vaccinate and get proper treatment for their pets. Yes, there are low costs places, but it still isn’t that cost effective for some of those who can’t afford it. There, needs to be a better system and resources for our local shelters, so they can access animals on intake for viral diseases and outbreaks. I don’t blame them at all, they don’t have the funding or proper resources to have vet techs and veterinarians on hand all the time. Our State has one of the biggest and best veterinarian schools, can’t we get a State funded program for each county to have access to for these situations. Local Veterinarian and animal hospitals should partner with their local and county shelters to have a program that citizens and communities can have assistance with spay, neuter, vaccines and treatment for strays, abused and abandoned animals. It not only helps control the animal care and population, but it also helps out our shelters from having to euthanize animals as well. We as humans, should stand up and be the voice for these poor innocent animals that God has created. It’s not their fault, it’s us humans fault for not taking care of your pets and the animal population! People in their community need to be aware and support their local shelters, don’t think they are all bad or cruel because they have to euthanize animals, do you honestly think they want to or enjoy it, absolutely not, volunteer at one and you will see for yourself. God Bless those that have to do that job, it’s heartbreaking and hard for them, just ask them, I did and do. I found out that our local BARC Shelter not only takes in for Anderson County, but also 6 other surrounding counties, that’s messed up right there, and people wonder why they have to euthanize as many as they do…CRAZY!

I’m writing this in honor and memory of “Red & Roxy” two stray sisters who deserved a better life….

Becky Whitlock

Palestine, Texas

Hi im penny calhoun. I live in Burleson ,Tx. Johnson County. Johnson County has one of the highest stray rates in the state. We have very few resources if any here where i live. There are plenty of resources for Burleson Tx if you live on the Tarrant County side of the town. Burleson Tx is in two different counties. I live on the Johnson County side where there are no resources or help with the strays or

abandoned and abused animals. I have tried to call the Humane society of North Texas and they told me to call my Sheriffs department to handle animal abuse and neglect calls in my area. I called the Sheriffs department , they would come out and ask a few questions then leave. Then the abuse and neglect continue. I want to be their voice. I want to make a difference here in Johnson County. We need change in this County.

I live in Canyon Lake Texas, Comal County. Our area is a dumping ground for strays it is also a place where people can get away with anything they want as far as animals are concerned I have documented photos and videos to prove the amount of animals that are tied to trees and ignored neglected and abused hungry unvaccinated, unfixed people out here seem to think that Animal Control will fix everything however the reality is as long as they have adequate shelter and water they are left unnoticed. I have created my own page on Facebook to be in contact with people who want to share their story of what goes on in their neighbors backyards anonymously “ I see dogs that deserve better in Comal county, I also have a petition for anti-tethering in caging of animals however we do not have enough resources to change any of this , please let me know what can we do in our community to change the laws out of here and get these animals into safe situation. We also have multiple families that Hoard animals and breed them I have videos and photos to document that I would like to put an end to all of that but don’t know the stop this we feel powerless out here with the few animal activists that I do know, I’ve made numerous calls to Animal Control, I have met with county commissioners, nothing changes it stays the same it is awful please show me the way to help the voiceless animals out here ASAP thank you

I live in a community that is in the country , we don’t have people to enforce laws out here like they should. There are a lot of animals that live on Chains or are confined to dog runs they get no social interaction. I would like to see these laws change for these poor animals that have to suffer

After we recovered from losing our rescue Lab my wife and I started a search for another dog . We were amazed at the number of black labs up for adoption, and we looked at hundreds online. We finally selected several to look at in person . One Saturday we drove to Houston to see a puppy in a foster home. He was a cute one but something did not ring up for us. Returning to College Station we came through Conroe to visit the Montgomery County animal shelter.

It was a typical summer day (hot and humid) as we visited two labs in the kennels we had seen on the Lab Rescue website. It seemed they were miserable in those conditions and not really interested in being displayed. But before we left the shelter (which was almost overwhelmed with hundreds of animals), we asked the director where “Rufus” was. They had not shown him to as we had requested when we got there.

We were told that he was “aggressive” and being kept in isolation, where he had been for weeks. It has also intimated that he probably would “not be around much longer”.

They asked us to step into a fenced enclosure behind the building and they would fetch Rufus.

Three of us were waiting when they brought him through the gate and took his leash off.

He immediately took off running the fence line at top speed. On about the third lap around the large yard he stopped about 100 feet from us and looked down. He then picked up a doggie toy, trotted over and dropped it right at my feet.

He is our “Bennie Boy” now for over a year. He is a playful, funny, beautiful companion and we are so happy he chose us!

.

My name is Autumn Thornburg. I just recently moved to Killeen. On May 28,2017 my dog was stolen out of my backyard by my boyfriend’s Aunt. While the dog was surrendered to me in February of this year by my boyfriend’s family Aunt. She traveled to Killeen on May 28,2017 from Big Spring, Texas and without permission took the dog. This person is known as Ermelinda Cano or ’’Melinda’’. She has a lengthy theft record as well as trespassing and assult of a Peace Officer. I have gone through so much legal stuff to try and get my dog back. As the State of Texas sees pets as property, I see him as my four legged child. My boyfriend and I also adopted another dog for Reggie to have a playmate. As you can imagine she is beside herself that Reggie is not here.

Currently, the process to get my dog back is taking too long. I am concerned about the welfare of my dog. I have had to speak to officers in both Bell county and Howard county (This is where Ermelinda took Reggie my dog) I have sent her certified letters requesting the return of Reggie,spoke with family members, made civil and now a criminal case, as well as, sending Animal control in her county to check on Reggie. Today, Killeen police made a criminal case, but depending on the case load of the Investigator that will handle our case; it could be weeks, months,or a year before we can get our dog back. This is simply unexceptionable! His welfare is in jeopardy and we worry we will never see him again. This type of situation needs to be a priority and should be handled with in a 48 hour period. When the welfare of an animal is being questions officers should be able to use their better judgement and apprehend the dog, returning it to the rightful owner.

Especially when the thief is a known criminal and has a history of drug use. Please help me not only get the safe return of my dog Reggie but also to help others in similar situations get their pets home as well. I thank you for your time. I look forward to speaking to you soon about this matter in the future, hopefully. #ReturnReggie

Unfortunately, sometimes in responding to requests for a home visit to assess for Invisible Fence (our company) we have witnessed some horrific tie-outs, heard about dogs being hanged on a fence from the tie-out or dogs that were saved while hanging on the fence. The most shocking thing is that we see dogs neglected in all walks of life, where people should know better but just neglect their pets. We are able to help a lot of these people by keeping a habitual escapee home, which is why we are in the business. We want to do more to help with legislative awareness because it is needed.


Our own pet, Cooter was hit when we moved into a house with a no-fence policy because we are in a flood plain. That’s when we found the Invisible Fence solution and ended up being able to acquire that business when a new owner was needed. Every day we and our staff are able to save pets that would otherwise be in danger.

I have not heard a response to this letter. I also filed complaint against the veterinarian who runs “austin pets alive” but the texas veterinary board claims to have no jurisdiction over shelters. Anyone know what I can do here?


P. O. Box 301501

Austin, TX 78703

January 3, 2017


Tawny Hammond

Chief Animal Services Officer

Austin Animal Center

7201 Levander Loop

Building A

Austin, TX 78702


Dear Ms. Hammond-


On September 15, 2016 I surrendered my tortie cat Pretty Boy #1 (now known as Pretty) to the Austin Animal Center on Levander Loop. I adopted the cat 8 years ago when it showed up in my neighborhood, and I have provided regular care for her (it is a female cat) during that period of time, mostly at the Central Texas Cat Hospital in Round Rock. In the last year the cat developed stomatitis which, as you know, is a treatable but not usually a curable condition characterized by bleeding and inflammation in the mouth. This causes the cat great pain and interferes with its ability to eat. I turned the cat in because I could no longer provide care for it. It was costing $100 to $150 per month at the veterinary clinic and the cat kept hiding outdoors and not eating once its mouth started hurting. When it received its monthly shots at the veterinarian office the condition would clear up and the cat would be able to eat kibble with no problem but its condition would deteriorate over the course of 4-6 weeks until it got its next round of shots. I believed that the Austin Animal Center would be able to either give it the continuing treatment it needed or euthanize the cat to take it out of its misery. After the Austin Animal Center did give it some treatment, they passed the cat to Austin Pets Alive at 1156 W. Cesar Chavez. I visited the Austin Pets Alive facility on January 1, 2017 and observed that the cat was ill and didn’t appear to have received medical care recently. The cat was listless and had foaming blood oozing from its mouth. In the past, when I have brought the cat to Dr. Smith in Round Rock and gotten its shots, its mouth clears up and the cat becomes very active outdoors going on hikes with me and catching mice. It is my contention that this cat is not receiving proper care and is in a condition of suffering. I can recognize when the cat is ill because I cared for it for 8 years. I spoke with the cat manager at the facility who claimed the cat was receiving treatment. I asked her to show me the treatment record which she refused to do. I informed her that I did not believe the cat was receiving proper treatment based on my familiarity with the cat and I told her I would be filing complaint. At that point, and in a very intimidating manner, she escorted me off the premises. She was not willing to listen to the information I had to give her about the cat. I believe the condition of the cat now may constitute animal cruelty even though it may not be intentional but is related to a lack of understanding of what the cat needs. On Monday, January 2, I called Austin 311 and filed an animal cruelty complaint and I am waiting for a response to that. What can you do for this cat Tawny to ensure that it will be taken care of?


Sincerely,


Stephen Allen

[email protected]

512-963-6287

I received a animal call on a injured cat on a highway. This cat had an injury to its eye and had a rash /burn mark on neck. He was very angry which I would be to. I thought I found the perfect home until he went to attack the lady. I knew he was too aggressive to be adopted out so he came home with me. I bought him a collar with a name tag that said “jaws”. I told my neighbors not to touch him. I had him for two years and he finally licked me this morning. He sits on my lap and is finally trusting me not to hurt him. His eye will never heal and he has severe emotional scars and the veterinarians hate him but I love him. No animal should ever be thrown out of a vehicle. He will now be loved if only by me.