By Colin Killian, Public Communications Director
In this week’s episode of “What’s Up, College Station?” Grace Hallowell and Animal Control Officer Hector Garcia discuss microchipping pets, reporting missing pets, animal bite protocols, and wildlife removal.
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If you have a suggestion for a future topic or interview, email me at ckillian@cstx.gov.
TRANSCRIPT
Grace Hallowell:
What’s up College Station? I’m Grace Hollowell and today I’m joined by Animal Control Officer Hector Garcia. It’s always exciting to have Animal Control on the show. So let’s kind of kick things off by talking about what is the goal of Animal Control for the City of College Station?
Hector Garcia:
What we end up trying to do to help the community is just keep the community safe when it comes to wildlife and pets that get out. We try and help out owners when their animals get out of the yard to try and find them, get them back. Hopefully, they’re microchipped. We carry microchip scanners with us and we’re able to look up to get that information and try and get them back home. At the same time, when it comes to wildlife, if it’s something that we’re able to remove, we will try and remove it. Also bats, that’s another thing that’s been kind of starting to pop up just a little bit, and the same thing with skunks. Whenever people have issues with those, they give us a call and we try and help them out with that. So it is trying to keep the community safe from any type of exposures or bites or anything like that, trying to reunite their pets with the families. And then also just trying to make sure to kind of educate on certain ordinances here in town, as well.
Grace Hallowell:
If somebody is missing their pet, what do they need to do? Who do they need to contact?
Hector Garcia:
They can contact the non-emergency line at the police department (979-764-3600). Try and give as much information as possible; where was it last seen, what type of animal it is, color, owner’s information, address. And once we have that information, we patrol that area to see if we can find it. If we are able to, we give the owner a call back as soon as we find them. We also give advice of, hey, if we aren’t able to find them, it doesn’t mean a citizen wasn’t able to find them. And usually, we advise them to reach out to the Humane Society as well because somebody probably took it up there if they found the animal.
Grace Hallowell:
That’s something that many people might not know is that all the lost pets in College Station, if we can’t find their owner, they are taken to Aggieland Humane Society.
Hector Garcia:
Sometimes people think, oh, animal control, they’re just going to end up taking my animal away. No, we always try our best to reunite them with the owners. And then like I said, if we aren’t able to get ahold of the owner or if they don’t have a microchip, we always take them up to the Humane Society where they try and use the resources they have and try and get ahold of the owner as well.
Grace Hallowell:
Another thing we mentioned is animal bites. What are the steps that people need to take if they are bit by a pet or a wildlife animal?
Hector Garcia:
If it’s a pet, make sure that you’re safe if something happens. If you need to separate yourself away from the animal that is biting you, try your best to separate. Get any type of description of the animal, if that’s the case. If it’s your pet, make sure that you’re able to secure the animal. First and foremost, try and get the wound cleaned and get medical attention. That’s one of the main things we always try and push is hey, try and get medical attention, especially if it’s a severe bite. If at that point, if everything’s calmed down, if it’s your pet, give us a call, let us know what happened.
We usually go over the procedure, by state law, for the quarantine process. And then if it’s an incident where it involves somebody else’s dog, try and get the owner’s information, contact info, address, description of the dog so that we can make contact with the owner to see if it is up to date on his rabies vaccine as well.
Grace Hallowell:
What if it is a wild animal that somebody encounters and is bit by?
Hector Garcia:
If it’s wildlife, see if you can safely contain it so that we can remove it and get it tested. That’s for pets as well. So sometimes you let your dog out in the backyard, you don’t know there’s a raccoon or a skunk or something back there. We’ve had incidences where a dog has been playing with something, the owner doesn’t know what it is, they go and look and it’s a little bat. So we try our best to get whatever wildlife that the dog or person was exposed to, secure it and send it off for testing so that we can let them know is there is concern for rabies and what steps you need to take.
When it comes to personal pets, there are some immediate vaccines that you need to get as a precaution. And when it comes to people, we immediately say, go get checked out by your doctor. We want to make sure that you’re taken care of. Clean the wounds, because even if the animal doesn’t come back as positive, there’s a chance for infection. We always recommend to get it checked out and get it cleaned out at the least. And in the end, whatever you and your doctor’s plan of action is, go with that plan. Whenever we get results back, we notify the individual involved to let them know there was no concern or there was and here’s some steps you should take.
Grace Hallowell:
If you see an animal in distress, you can also call Animal Control for that as well.
Hector Garcia:
If it looks like it’s a wildlife that is injured or sickly, definitely give us a call. We’ll come out, evaluate, and help in any way we’re able. It is surprising sometimes how often people try to walk up to wildlife. I’ve seen people walk up and try and feed some raccoons before. Please don’t do that. It looks friendly, but it’s still wildlife, it’s not a pet. It can still bite you. So whenever we see that stuff, we usually try and educate people about why it’s not a good idea to pet or feed wildlife.
Grace Hallowell:
Definitely use caution when dealing with wildlife. So where can people find out more information about Animal Control?
Hector Garcia:
We’re on the City of College Station webpage (cstx.gov). We have our own section under the police department for animal control. And on that website it has city ordinances. If there’s some pest control issues you’re having with wildlife, there’s a section that gives tips on what you can do. Ultimately, we ask that you call 979-764-3600, the non-emergency phone for the police department, if you need to reach us. We’re always willing to help out, answer questions, see what we can do. And like I said at the beginning, that’s our job to try and help the community as much as we can.
Grace Hallowell:
If you’re not sure about the ordinances, if you’re confused, or if you want clarification on what animals you can have or you can’t have, definitely give you guys a call.
Hector Garcia:
Sometimes there’s a little confusion on what is and isn’t allowed. People have called us and like, hey, this is what I’m interested in getting. Is this allowed? Yes, it is, or no, it’s not. Sometimes it’s about poultry permits and what’s required.
Grace Hallowell:
Thank you so much for joining me today. And that’s What’s Up.
About the Blogger
Colin Killian has been with the City of College Station since 2010 after serving 23 years as the associate media relations director for the Texas A&M Athletics Department. He has also worked as a reporter and editor for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times and Lewisville News. A native of Hobbs, N.M., Killian graduated from Texas Tech with a bachelor’s degree in journalism/political science.
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