CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Now that the first freeze of the season is over, some local residents are dealing with the effects of leaving their pets out in the cold.
Miguel Escobar with Animal Protection Services said more than 100 citations were issued after assessing each situation and determining the conditions in which pets were left in subfreezing temperatures.
“So overall, since we've been actively patrolling, we've received 700 calls in that period alone,” Escobar said. “The majority of calls were related to cold weather with animals being left outside.”
He explained how animal protection services determine whether weather conditions are safe for pets.
“Be aware of the ordinances in place and also know that animal control is affected by ambient temperature,” Escobar said. “So to ensure that animals outside have comfortable bedding to stay warm, the standard would be 50 degrees. And if the ambient temperature is below 32 degrees, animals can be allowed outside without supervision. You can’t leave.”
He said fostering animals really makes a difference in times like these. Not only for animals, but also for animal control services in the event of an animal influx.
“We were able to put up a total of 29 animals for adoption, and we actually had about 150 animals come into our care,” Escobar said.
Kylie Osteen, a regular at Animal Care Services, came in before the freeze to give a second animal a temporary home from the harsh environment.
“The reason we trained him this time was to get him out of a frozen state,” Osteen said. “We have a lot of puppies here at the shelter who can't go outside anymore, so we just put them in a warm, safe, loving home.”
While many are facing penalties at the moment, the past week has also shown some positive results.
Sarah Spence of the Gulf Humane Society told 3NEWS that compared to last year's cold snap, the shelter only had to care for a few more animals.
“Animal control, they pulled up and did what they had to do,” Spence said. “They were very cooperative. In fact, this is the lowest number of dogs we actually had to board during the freeze period. There were actually only two dogs. But surprisingly, last year I think there were more than 10 of them. So they've done a great job, they've made it very easy for us. I did. ”
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