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The road to Hell is paved with good intentions

BELLAIRE, TX, US, June 16, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- With renewed fervor over the past two years, town officials in Bellaire, TX, have faced an increasing public outcry over conditions at the local dog pound. During that same period, external and internal factors exacerbated the challenges posed by a decrepit structure of unknown age. Beyond the obvious complications presented by Covid, a new Chief of Police was hired, a new regime in City Hall was elected, and the Officer of the Year (who happened to be the Animal Control Officer) was transferred although no replacement was available.

Bellaire and its adjacent small towns represent the wealthiest municipalities in the Houston Megalopolis. Uniquely, money has never been a substantive issue, re: public services or capital improvements in these Zip Codes. Contact any other department or staff in City Hall and receive service levels that exceed those of most 5* hotels. But despite the best efforts of the Police Department, which is charged with oversight of animal control, a 5-room doghouse that handles something less than 100 pups a year, cannot be a significant priority. Houston city limits are only a mile or two away in any direction … with such big city proximity, big city problems are just next door.

Likewise, the City Council is confronted with the never-ending, Herculean tasks of flood control in an area that Mother Nature is going to flood on a regular basis. “Man plans and she laughs.” Weeks before the summer solstice, temperatures can hit 100 degrees for just as long.

As well, with this little town’s affluence, comes the onslaught commercial development. Per Capita and for its size, few other communities have as many zoning issues wherein $2 million McMansions share a fence line with a proposed fast food drive-thru or a 10-story office building. The Zoning Board and the City Council are routinely overwhelmed.

So, despite the well-intentioned efforts of City Fathers, the Pound Hounds receive only scraps from the conference table.

A new Animal Control Officer was hired about three months ago. In fairness, two or three years’ of experience as one of five others qualified her for on-the-job-training in a much less demanding position in a much smaller small town. She is certified to perform several routine testing and inoculation procedures. She exhibits a sincere concern for her charges.

To be equally fair, she can’t be expected to necessarily know how to properly sanitize a kennel or readily accept more effective concepts outside the box of her experience. That education will surely come with time.

Meanwhile the measures that well-intentioned lay volunteers had initiated over the past few months remain in place, despite the negative impact on the denizens of the Pound. Electric fans create a convection effect in the tiny, cramped enclosures. The power cords are a fire and electrocution hazard in the absence of any inspection thereof, by any public agency in the past 10 years.

Kids’ wading pools may look like fun for humans, but terrified & confused stray dogs may not be so eager for a soak. More over, the potential exchange of organic or skin disease among anonymous K-9’s can be dangerous, if not deadly. When these pools are left overnight, during three days of rain or on the weekends, the stagnant water is a maternity ward for mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are the #1 carrier of heartworms, which are a primary cause of shortened life spans, exorbitant medical bills and death among dogs.

A simple, systemic & sustainable solution - as encouraged by the citizen movement, “It’s all about the dogs.” - is the implementation of a “mister”. This glorified garden hose (at a cost of less than $100) creates a “curtain” of very small water droplets outside the kennel. The moisture evaporates essentially immediately and yields a 20+ degree drop in temperature. Any idiot with a screwdriver can install them in less than an hour. They require no power and the water supply can be regulated by a timer.

Currently, the inmates can stand on concrete in their confined space for 22 hours each day. Concrete is a very efficient conductor of heat – a very poor insulator, reaching up to 130 degrees when the air temperature is 95. Indestructible, padded, martial arts mats are highly-efficient insulators and can be more effectively sanitized than porous materials such concrete or brick. The cost would again be less than $100, but again, citizens are eager to donate them. There is no “installation”. They’re mats.

Wooden pallets (or even milk crates) are available for the asking. If needed, they can be secured together with no effort. The elevated retreat provides an escape from occasional, minor flooding and the blistering concrete.

Citizens (“It’s all about the dogs.”) have presented these initial suggestions directly to individual City Council members, the Chief of Police, the new Animal Control Officer and the public, via a series of bi-monthly Council meetings. Only this past week did those citizens discover that their “innovative ideas” have long been advocated, endorsed and implemented by the ASPCA, AKC, professional boarding kennels and numerous veterinarians (one of whom is nationally prominent, published and cited on the Police Department’s own web page).

The public outcry continues, but even the most active of activists appreciate that the wheels of government turn slowly. They are confident that a decision-maker will, “Do the right thing” … eventually - hopefully – before another of their charges needlessly suffers or another one dies,

“It’s all about the dogs.”

Mike Stanton
"It's all about the dogs."
+1 832-799-9427
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Maternity Ward for Heart Worms & Transfer of Other Diseases