City discusses dog control

That was the question debated Tuesday as the topic of dogs was once again before Shelbyville City Council, with councilmen asking the city's animal control officer if shooting the wild animals was an option.

With members of the local Humane Society in attendance, animal control officer Randy McCullough appeared before the council to talk about the problem of wild canines running at large.

"Well, for one thing, I can't outrun 'em," McCullough joked to the council. The problem appears to stem from dogs that have been abandoned and he said that the most humane way to deal with the animals is to trap them. McCullough asked for suggestions from the council.

"Call Mr. Pow! Pow!," councilman Al Stephenson said, referring to a caller to the Times-Gazette's old "Who Said That" line who was a proponent of shooting stray dogs.

"Couldn't you possibly get those dogs and shoot them?" councilman Lee Roy Cunningham asked.

McCullough said that if you did, "you'll be on Channel 2 News."

"He's scared to death because he would get in a lot of trouble," Cunningham said.

"You would." McCullough agreed.

Using a tranquilizer gun was also suggested, but a person would have to be 20 feet away to use it and the drug takes 30 to 40 minutes to work, in which time the animal is long gone.

Mayor Wallace Cartwright asked what if McCullough was to fill the dart with the drug used to put dogs to sleep.

"What if a kid gets hold of it?" McCullough replied. "I'm thinking about all this stuff."

McCullough said he's only shot two dogs in his career and it was only as a last resort when the animal was a threat to the public. One shouldn't shoot a dog because it's running away, he added.

McCullough said there was one dog, a Doberman, that he has tried to catch for the past four months, but as soon as the animal sees them coming, "she's gone."

Live traps don't work and McCullough said he has been in connect with a national humane association and other cities such as Knoxville. "There's no solution," he said. "They told me to just keep trying." There are about 15 dogs that the animal control department is unable to catch, he added.

"They're wise, they've very wise," McCullough said of the dogs, adding that they've even tried using different vehicles that the animals won't recognize, but they somehow know who's coming.

Steel traps have also been considered, but they could hurt the animal or an innocent pet could be trapped in it, he said. Plus, the department does not have the manpower to "baby-sit" the traps all day long, McCullough explained.

Another problem is the dogs that are given away in the Wal-Mart parking lot, McCullough said. "The biggest part of the dogs we're after were given away at Wal-Mart. A 16-year-old goes out there, says 'oh, a cute little puppy' and Momma and Daddy says 'we don't want this dog,'" so the animal ends up being abandoned.

The council will look at the issue further next month.

"Just do the best you can," Stephenson said.