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Resident urges city action on roaming dogs, shelter spay/neuter and licensing enforcement
Summary
A Bowie resident told the council roaming, unaltered dogs are attacking pets and evading licensing and fines; she urged stricter enforcement and offered to help organize community efforts.
Chantelle Poulan, a Bowie resident who said she moved to town two and a half years ago, urged the council to address a growing problem with roaming dogs inside city limits. "They're killing cats. They're going into... my yard, onto my porch to get one of the cats," Poulan said, and described incidents in which roaming dogs jumped her fence and one dog was aggressive toward her dog.
Poulan said she has reported incidents monthly to city staff and the nonemergency police line and that multiple roaming dogs she and neighbors saw were "intact" (not spayed or neutered). "What do all 3 of those dogs have in common? They're unaltered," she said, and asked why animals adopted from the shelter were not being spayed or neutered before leaving the shelter. She said one owner received four tickets totaling nearly $300 for violations but that the fines were later dismissed.
Poulan told the council she was unaware of the city's licensing process until recently and questioned enforcement: "With the amount of dogs and people are being fined and they're getting their fines thrown out, what are we doing?" She urged the council to require written warnings followed by fines and to institute a licensure system residents can track. Poulan offered to volunteer time to help organize community responses to the problem.
A council member responded, "Thank you for bringing that to our attention. We will definitely do some research," and staff indicated they would follow up. The council did not record a formal action on animal control issues in the provided segment.
