Harris County elected leaders, non-profits, advocates address the state of animal welfare

HOUSTON - It's estimated that a million stray animals are wandering the streets in Harris County, causing public health and public safety issues.

What we know:

Last year alone, Harris County reported 2,500 dog bite cases.

Texas ranks among the highest in the nation with more than 6,000 postal workers attacked every year by dogs.

For more than a decade, PetSet has been sounding the alarm about Houston's animal overpopulation crisis.

What they're saying:

"There's nothing more of an issue in Harris County than this animal control issue and anybody that would minimize that clearly does not understand how significant it is," said Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey.

"Animal welfare and the way we treat animals is an important part of the community," said Tena Lundquist Faust, Co-President of PetSet. "Our mayor knows it's important, our DA knows it's important. It affects public health, public safety, quality of life, and that's why everybody is here, no matter who you are, our stray animal crisis impacts everybody."

"This is such a critical component to public safety," said District Attorney Sean Teare. "Animal dumping, the animal homeless problem, getting the community to feel safe about going outside is critically important to everything."

Houston Mayor John Whitmire announced a new BARC adoption center will break ground in November.

"Paid for by a bond issue the public approved several years ago, but stalled out," said Whitmire. "It's going to be state of the art. It's going to be a complex you'll want to visit, not only to see animals up for adoption, it will also be a recreation facility, a retail facility. It will bring people to the animals."

Is Houston's animal overpopulation crisis solvable?

"Absolutely," said Tama Lundquist, Co-President of Houston PetSet. "Other cities have done it. There's no doubt in my mind this can be done."

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