Packs of Dogs Continue to be a Problem in East Dallas

A cat was killed by dogs on Wednesday, May 16, on Worth Street (block number unknown). Another resident just e-mailed and said her cat was killed in mid-March in the 700 block of Glasgow. On Sunday, May 20, three roving dogs followed a resident’s cat under the crawl space of a house in the 700 block of Ridgeway. The cat was able to retreat to a safe place but the dogs refused to leave. The residents lured the dogs out of the crawl space by leaving some pieces of meat at the entrance to the crawlspace. The dogs were last seen going into the alley parallel to Gaston between Ridgeway and Skillman.

911 was called but the city did not respond; the caller was told mistakenly to dial 311 which made it a much lower priority. (The caller was told the city would investigate within 40 days.) In situations like this, the 911 operators should have called a Ms. Castillo, who will dispatch a team of animal control people. In the future, please call Ms. Castillo directly. Her number is 214-287-7935. It is her cell phone and she will respond.

Ms. Castillo will soon have a team of animal control people sweeping our area looking for stray dogs. In the meantime, please keep your pets inside. This is a problem that has plagued the neighborhoods of East Dallas for some time.

Thanks to JH resident Beth Newman who called Angela Hunt’s office to straighten out the confusion. Ms. Hunt’s office met with the 911 people two weeks ago and insisted that problems about roving dogs not be forwarded to 311. The 311 receivers should also have this information.

Car Windows Smashed

On Thursday night, May 17, the windows of two cars were smashed in the 5600 block of Columbia. Both cars were parked in the driveways but nothing was stolen.