WEBXTRA: Wood County law enforcement, citizens trying to stop animal dumping

WOOD COUNTY, Texas (KLTV) - A disturbing, re-occurring problem for one East Texas county, dealing with dumping! Animal dumping.

It’s happening in Wood county in the Hawkins area, where dogs and cats are being abandoned along roadsides.

“We’ve had over 10 dogs in the last 3 days,” says Hwkins police chief Manfred Gilow.

The chief says it’s an oft repeated trend of animals being abandoned, sometimes right along highway 80 in Hawkins.

“We had a lady who saw a silver Dodge pickup truck 2 days ago with a couple dumping 2 dogs,” he says.

Gilow believes since the city opened their dog shelter, it’s been a green light for people wanting to dump animals.

“We have a K-9 rescue unit. People are driving to the zip code and dropping their dogs off, we got filled up within 3 days. We offer this help and it’s abused by the people who don’t have the courtesy and integrity to take care of their animals. It’s very cruel, it’s very disappointing,” Gilow says.

Many more have been seen along rural county roads, and taken in by good-hearted residents.

“We just brought one dumped dog in the house, got her warm and started shaving her, cleaning her up where she’d feel good,” said Wood county resident Enos Smith.

“These dogs were not malnourished. We had 4 puppies dropped off. It is now cruelty to animals. It is a criminal charge,” Manfred says.

Dumped in remote areas, the animals can go unnoticed for days and even weeks. Cold and hungry, they look for any kind of shelter they can find.

The Smiths live on one of those roads, and have tried to rescue as many as they can, even building make-shift pens to care for them.

“Spend a lot of money on food and vet. We’re in contact with rescues out of state, and they help us a lot but they’re full and we do the best we can,” Enos says.

The chief says the city rescue shelter is full, and money to take care of the animals is running out.

But he has a plan to catch those responsible.

“Game cameras. And we put cameras up outside our city to catch them,” he says.

Gilow says anyone caught dumping animals in his jurisdiction will be arrested, and prosecuted by the county district attorney.