CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Refugio County commissioners are once again set to discuss a proposal to spend half a million dollars for an animal control facility. It's on the agenda for tomorrow's meeting.
The county judge is hoping that commissioners won't table the discussion again, which she said is what happened at the July 16 meeting. The county's animal control can't collect all the strays that need to be off the streets as there is no room at the temporary facility, she said.
3NEWS has details on this issue that has a lot of people concerned.
We ran into one man who certainly wants to see the county finally take action to get strays off the street by building a facility large enough to hold them.
That is because he's getting tired of being chased in his wheelchair by pit bulls and the like.
Jimmie Lewis Senior makes his way around Refugio with his mechanized wheelchair. The Vietnam veteran who was born and raised here still likes to get out and about in the city after suffering a couple of strokes, but these days, he never leaves the house without something to defend himself.
"I encounter dogs all the time and that's why I keep this pepper spray on me, you know," said Jimmie Lewis Senior.
A county animal control officer says there's a stray dog problem here, which also includes family pets that are allowed to roam free.
"When it comes to hey, there's a, you know, a chihuahua running down the street here that isn't something we are able to respond to, which has lead to a lot of public concern because sometimes it's not a chihuahua sometimes it's a friendly pit bull," Refugio County Judge, Gigi Poynter said.
County Judge Gigi Poynter and commissioners have been working to try and get a new animal control shelter built. The old one was damaged by Hurricane Harvey and the one they're using right now is a small building by the landfill, which only has a few cages. That's why animal control can't pick up dogs like these because there's no room. Now, the county has a possible site that it could use to house animals in the future.
"No matter which way you cut it, this option, the existing facility and land both cost-wise and opportunity-wise in my opinion has been a very good opportunity for the county," Poynter said.
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