Johnson County officials are turning to Fort Worth for help in capturing a pack of dogs roaming neighborhoods in Godley and threatening children’s safety.
On Thursday, county commissioners approved an agreement with Fort Worth Animal Care & Control to round up the pack of dogs.
Two interlocal agreements were passed, one between Fort Worth and Johnson County and the other between Fort Worth and the City of Godley. This is intended to help remove the dogs, regardless of the area where they are found.
In September, residents pleaded with Godley city leaders to do something about the dogs, who had been spotted in the Star Ranch and Wildcat Ridge subdivisions.
“I’m not a big person, I can’t contain 20-plus dogs to protect children,” Heather Figueroa said at the council meeting. “I couldn’t do that for my four children. My youngest is 3. We can’t go in our cul-de-sac, because now during the daytime, when we want to go out and play, we are not able to because I don’t know when they’re coming out.”
Officials believe there are about 13 dogs on the loose.
Figueroa said she and her neighbors have been donating food to Texas All Creatures Rescue (TACR) to help the dogs until they could be captured and placed.
Rick Bailey, a Johnson County commissioner, said Thursday that the agreement with Fort Worth is not a long-term solution to the county’s dog dumping problem.
Dory Cox, who works with TACR, said the dogs are not aggressive. The group wants to safely move them into caring homes instead of a shelter that may have to euthanize them.
Cox said she became aware of the dogs through social media and was able to meet with Godley Police Chief Darrell Vinson and see the dogs.
For the last two weeks, Cox and others have been going to feed the dogs with the donations of almost 400 pounds of dog food from Godley residents. Cox said that, to her knowledge, this has stopped the dogs from entering the neighborhood.
“We have seen zero signs of any aggression from any of these dogs,” Cox said.
Cox attributes the increasing number of dogs being dumped to the state’s lack of regulation.
“Texas has no spay and neuter laws or ordinances, Cox said. “Nobody’s required to spay or neuter their dogs. Many shelters in the Dallas-Fort Worth area allow dogs to be adopted without having spays or neuters. Some of them send the dogs off with a voucher. I don’t know if they follow up and make sure it’s done.”
Cox asked the commissioners to hold off on bringing in Fort Worth animal control.
“I would also say that maybe we need to have a larger discussion in the future about partnering with other surrounding counties,” Johnson County Judge Christopher Boedeker said. “Maybe with nonprofit organizations to create an opportunity for us to financially assist people that are doing the good work of getting these dogs adopted, without committing to a $32 million dog shelter.”
The agreement with Fort Worth is for 30 days and will cost $6,000.
“After the story broke, we had different city shelters that were at capacity wanting to help and we are grateful for that, we are also grateful for the agreement that we approved today,” Bailey told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.