By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Leaders of a state animal advocacy group have offered help to the county in dealing with local cases of animal abuse.
Members of the Texas Humane Legislation Network (THLN) made their comments to Val Verde County Commissioners Court in light of an April 4 incident at the county fairgrounds in which a man was filmed beating a horse.
Ana Markowski Smith, former county attorney and a THLN ambassador, spoke first.
“I had spoken to both Commissioner Wardlaw and the sheriff, and the sheriff indicates he has received phone calls from across the country. The same is true of THLN. THLN is the Texas Humane Legislation Network. I’m an ambassador with them and have been for a few years, and what we do is, we promote laws for the protection and safety of animals and against animal cruelty,” Smith told the court.
“This issue came before them, and they wanted to offer assistance to the county in terms of training and education. I think one of the things that’s most troubling when you first see the video (of the horse beating), it’s just shocking that anybody would do that, but what’s even more shocking is this man is very methodical, and he’s talking to the horse, and the woman’s that’s videotaping says, ‘Don’t you think he’s had enough?’ and he doesn’t stop at all. He just keeps going and going,” Smith added.
The court also heard from Shelby Bobosky, THLN executive director.
“We are a 45-year-old non-profit, and our mission is to promote the humane treatment of animals through education, legislation and advocacy . . . I’m here to respectfully ask the commissioners to take these acts of animal cruelty seriously, and hopefully we can create a partnership with your law enforcement officials and animal control officers to train them for these incidents when they occur,” she said.
Bobosky noted the THLN helped pass the state’s first animal cruelty law in 1997, and she pointed out that addressing cases of animal cruelty helps keep Texas communities safer because of well-established links between animal cruelty and other crimes. She said serial killers and mass shooters often display their tendencies early by torturing and killing animals.
“We all know that investigating animal cruelty can lead to other intersections of crime, whether it’s dog fighting or cock fighting. When you do these investigations, it makes it worth the law enforcement officer’s time. And the level of organization and other wrongdoing can include illegal gambling, prostitution, drugs, guns and all these other offenses,” Bobosky said.
“We’re here to offer help if you’d like it. We’d like to help your law enforcement officers to proactively move forward in getting any training they need because we understand animal cruelty can be part of a larger nexus of crimes. And I will just end quickly with this: Animal cruelty is more than just a legal issue. It’s truly a community issue, and we have seen in Texas communities if you improve the animal welfare in a community, you improve public safety for everyone,” Bobosky added.
Stacy Sutton Kerby, TLHN director of government relations, also spoke briefly to the court.
“When it comes to our role, we are here to offer support, to facilitate training and to get people into the same room. We recognize that each community is different, and the issues you are facing there are different than some other places where we’ve brought folks into the room . . . We appreciate the opportunity to get into a partnership or a collaboration with you, especially in light of the extreme cases that were recently brought to our attention,” she told the court.
The court took no formal action following the presentations.
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