Feral dogs in county worry residents

HINKLEY • Carole Hendryx has lost two of her Chihuahuas to feral dogs in Hinkley.

Stray or unrestrained dogs are a reoccurring problem in the area, but the most recent problems began a few months ago, when a pack of dogs began hanging out at an abandoned house on Hinkley Road, less than a block from Hinkley Elementary School, Hendryx said.

A stray female Rottweiler jumped into Hendryx’s yard Aug. 1 and attacked two of her Chihuahuas, killing one and seriously injuring the other, she said. The same Rottweiler  attacked another one of her dogs Sunday. That Chihuahua died at the veterinarian’s office Tuesday, Hendryx said.

“I’m over $800 in debt trying to save her, and I couldn’t,” Hendryx said.

Neighbor Naomi Tripp said the strays had attacked her dogs as well, and one of them had gone missing. At San Bernardino County Animal Control’s urging, Tripp began giving the feral dogs treats to tame them and was eventually able to catch the Rottweiler and one other dog so that Animal Control could pick them up.

San Bernardino County Animal Control supervisor of field services John Papp said Wednesday there was one dog remaining on the loose and the county had set a trap for it that morning.

Hendryx, who has three great-grandchildren between the ages of three and nine years old, said she was concerned for their safety and for the safety of children walking to school on Hinkley Road. She maintained the county should have acted sooner to catch the dogs.

Papp said the worker handling the case had not brought the trap sooner because the neighbors were cooperating in helping to catch the dogs. Tripp and Hendryx both said Animal Control should not have expected the neighbors to deal with the situation.

Animal Control has picked up seven or eight dogs from Hinkley in the past couple of months, Papp said. He called abandoned dogs an increasing problem in the county.

“We have actually seen an increase, with all the foreclosures and everything, of abandoned animals,” he said.

The number of animals being impounded at county owned and operated shelters was 22 percent higher in the July-to-September period of 2008 as it was in 2007, Papp said.

Like Papp, Barstow Humane Society spokesman Bill Cook said that roaming packs of dogs have been issues in all the outlying areas around Barstow. Some are animals with owners who don’t keep them properly restrained; others are abandoned.

“People dump their dogs from wherever they came from up here,” he said. “The dogs join the pack and they run around and have a tendency to do what dogs do — it’s not that they’re bad dogs, they just get in a pack.”

To report an animal problem, call San Bernardino County Animal Control at 1-800-472-5609.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or asewell@desertdispatch.com