Karen Huber County Commissioner: Precinct Three Report

March 2009: Culture Differences

Once upon a time, not so long ago, much of western Travis County was undeveloped
countryside, mostly inhabited by ranchers, their livestock and the indigenous animals that lived in the woods nearby.

This is a tale of what can happen when people of drastically different lifestyles – one rural, the other urban – suddenly find themselves living in close proximity to one another. The term is called Rural-Urban Interface, and though it may sound like a something out of a college anthropology class, it is a very real occurrence and one of its symptoms is creating havoc in some of our neighborhoods.

You may have heard of the recent attacks by packs of dogs on livestock in Lakeway. In January, Bob Pope and his family incurred a loss of nearly $40,000 when six dogs dug onto their property and slaughtered their goats. More recently, Joe and Gwendolyn Wunneburger lost their entire stock of animals – sheep, goats and llamas – to a similar attack.

Here’s where our rural society and our urban society not only begin to interface – they clash, and in a big way. The dogs involved in the above attacks were not all considered to be feral. Many were domestic dogs, some identified as labs, others as pit bulls. They were people’s pets. Most dog owners do not like to think of their dogs as wild animals, but the truth is that even the most docile of canines will succumb under the pressure of the pack, and the results can be bloody and devastating. And the opportunity for our dear precious family dogs to occasionally “join up with the pack” happens more often in areas where urbanization is taking place on the edges of
undeveloped land. When several dogs are running loose, our pets may instinctively join them, and this could lead to undesirable results.

These recent attacks have taken place near undeveloped land and the dogs involved moved freely between the City of Lakeway and unincorporated areas of Travis County. Dealing with such issues becomes multi-jurisdictional. This past week, I hosted a meeting of officials from the Cities of Lakeway and Austin as well as Travis County – Mr. Pope joined us, too -- to brainstorm creative solutions to addressing this serious problem before another attack occurs. I was pleased to find that excellent cooperation already exists between these different groups and the level of concern is high.

Lakeway Police and Travis County Sheriff’s officers work together to see that
the quickest response is made during emergencies. Both will cross jurisdictional lines, when needed. Beefed up efforts have been made to round up as many loose dogs as possible. Austin Animal Control (with whom Travis County contracts) has a neighborhood outreach program that provides both education and spaying programs and they will be working the Apache Shores area in March. Travis County is going to take another long look at its animal control regulations.

Perhaps most importantly, though, everyone in our meeting concurred that there exists no replacement for responsible dog ownership. We all know that government alone is not the answer. Residents – even those in unincorporated areas – have a responsibility to their dogs and their neighbors to confine their pets, report any problems, and to relinquish their pets to the proper entities when no longer able to care for them.

Dog attacks on livestock and people are not a new problem, but the frequency of these attacks is increasing as our population grows and land is developed. As more and more urbanites move from apartments and picket fences to wide open spaces, it is easy to get carried away by the thought of our dogs having more space to roam. But let’s not forget that “no fences” does not equal “no rules.” Dogs that are found to be roaming outside of their property can be picked up by animal control – no questions asked.

This particular rural-urban interface problem is not one that will go away, but it can be managed with good education about our pets, and good sharing of information. We need you to be our eyes and our ears, and to report any problems that you identify. If you witness an attack, call 911 immediately. If you see dogs running loose or have any concerns regarding a situation in your neighborhood, please call 311. And as always, I welcome your input. If you have any creative solutions to addressing this problem, please email them to me at Karen.Huber@co.travis.tx.us.