There’s an easier way to report suspected animal cruelty in Houston and Harris County.
A new task force will be in charge of following up.
“We see way too many things that have been unable to be taken care of because of the lack of resources,” said BARC animal shelter director Greg Damianoff.
BARC joined Crime Stoppers and a host of other agencies to announce new measures meant to crack down on animal cruelty. They include a new task force aimed at streamlining investigations and a new website and hotline to serve as a sole clearinghouse for complaints.
“People don’t realize how much it goes on,” said Houston Humane Society director Sherry Ferguson.
She believes more cruelty cases can be investigated if less time is wasted.
“This is going to make a different in that people and organizations won’t be crossing over and duplicating efforts,” Ferguson said.
The new task force will be investigating reports of neglect, abuse, hoarding, torture and dog fighting. Those are the kinds of things local law enforcement has gotten more than 40,000 calls about over the last two years.
“When Houstonians know that there’s a centralized hotline they can call, reporting will go up,” said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. “And when reporting goes up, public awareness goes up.”
And, hopefully, the number of animal cruelty cases will go down.
That new hotline number is (832)-927-PAWS. Officials recommend using the website first.