10/30/2026
Why does the state government need to take the lead on animal welfare?
Because community leaders are responsible for changing their community's culture. For promoting education and for being the example the community is expected to adhere to. When an area doesn't value the lives of the most vulnerable, look at the community where the leaders come from.
Is it any wonder community programs fail when uneducated leaders come from their own uneducated communities? Leaders who come from communities where education is not valued, end up limiting progress because they themselves were not educated, and they themselves do not value doing anything different than what's always been done.
Look at CenTex for instance. Copperas Cove leaders spent millions of taxpayer dollars to have someone in the police department head the construction of the shelter. What did the community end up with? A shelter that has FEWER dog kennels and last years budget stated "Canine holding in new shelter is lower number of kennels, will not be able to hold dogs for rescue as long-will increase euthanizing." So more euthanasia drugs were needed in the budget. Does the shelter LOOK nice? Yes. Was it built to function well for the animals, staff and community? Needing to budget more euthanasia drugs tells me, NO!!
Many shelters don't offer foster programs. Don't spay/neuter the animals before they leave the shelter. Don't offer TNVR programs. Don't consistently even vaccinate the pets or provide them with flea/tick prevention. Don't promote all the pets on social media. Don't have hours that make it easy for working families to adopt a pet.
The Copperas Cove Animal Shelter is only open from 9am to noon on Saturdays over the weekend. Citizens only have 3 hours on the weekend to visit the shelter. Plus, have you seen the shelter's social media page? Barely a pet promoted. But the police department has a very active social media page for themselves. We can't forget Pitties, Rottweilers or Chows are not allowed to be adopted from the shelter. Then leaders say "nobody wants these dogs". Well, nobody knows they're there! And you don't even let many of them get adopted anyway.
In Bell County, just a few weeks ago a dog was euthanized at the county shelter even though a taxpayer had called to say they were coming in to adopt a dog and they had even excitedly posted to the shelter's own social media page they were adopting the dog. Lack of communication skills led to that euthanasia but lack of communication with rescues has been a consistent problem at that shelter.
Pearl's Place Rescue was denied tagging rights for reasons that kept changing every time shelter management was asked why and a local veterinarian has banned the shelter from bringing them shelter pets because of poor communication and improper procedures at the shelter.
When the Bell County Animal Shelter was taken over by a new Sheriff in 2025, the newly appointed Sergeant over the shelter stated she knew when puppies had parvo because she could smell it. This was at an animal advisory board meeting in front of dozens of people, including a commissioner and the contracted veterinarian. NO ONE educated her that smelling parvo to diagnose parvo is NOT how that's done and I honestly was too stunned and confused by literally everyone in the room just accepting that answer to reply. Pretty sure my jaw dropped though. What a surprise, puppies were adopted out from the shelter with parvo. Go figure.
I could go on and on and on about the need for an educated community to produce educated leaders that then hire educated management. Education is KEY to progress. We're not going to get to a better place in animal welfare when our leaders do not value education or the educated don't step up and say "Yeah, no. That's not how that works."
Constantly making excuses for our community leaders for NOT educating their staff, NOT expecting professionals to run taxpayer paid programs, NOT collaborating with shelters that are benchmarks for the area, NOT consulting with the people who actually understand the needs in their community is setting everyone back.
We don't pay taxes to get mediocre results. We expect our leaders to provide the community with the best systems, services and employees who benefit us taxpayers. When programs don't serve the people, it's time to elect new leaders who understand a growing community needs educated individuals spending their tax dollars wisely.
