Officials in dog house over ambassador dog’s situation
KERRVILLE — It’s clear from his swanky accommodations at the Kerr County animal shelter that Nelson, a large gray pit bull mix lounging on a pillow in the facility’s office, is no ordinary stray.
For the last three years he served as the county’s official canine ambassador, appearing at area school campuses and other venues with shelter staffers delivering tutorials about rabies control, the importance of spaying and neutering and related topics.
“The kids loved him,” said Mike Wong, who met Nelson during the dog’s visit at the now-closed county’s juvenile detention center, where he was a detention officer.
“It brought up their spirits,” Wong, now a county animal control officer, said Wednesday. “Having a dog there reminded them of their own pets at home.”
County commissioners decided in November to retire Nelson and discontinue the ambassadorship due to liability concerns after discovering the county’s insurance policies didn’t cover him. The move also is intended to save the county money.
Three people made unsolicited requests to adopt Nelson, said County Commissioner Jonathan Letz who, like other officials, wants to ensure the county finds a good home for the former ambassador. For now, he’s grounded at the shelter.
There has been a hitch, Letz said, due to Nelson’s official county diplomatic standing and because taxpayers had covered a $2,306.54 vet bill incurred in 2016 when he was hit by a car while on an official outing.
“After the county attorney started looking at it, she concluded that Nelson was a county asset,” said Letz. “Like property, you can’t just give him away after the county had put money into him.”
The county could declare him surplus and put Nelson up for auction, but there’s no assurance that the high bidder would provide a good home, Letz said.
County Attorney Heather Stebbins said that, as county surplus, Nelson could also legally be donated to a nonprofit organization.
“He doesn’t have the training like a drug dog or a police dog or a cadaver dog, but he was the county’s canine ambassador and he is county property,” she said. “He was more like a service dog than one who could be put on the general adoption rolls.”
To try to solve the problem, officials decided to recoup the county’s veterinarian expense on Nelson by setting his adoption fee at $2,306.54, rather than the normal $45 fee for dogs.
Although one would-be adopter agreed verbally to pay the higher fee, Letz said, in the interest of ensuring everyone had a fair chance at acquiring a county asset, the county posted a Dec. 8 notice advising that Nelson was available for adoption at $2,306.54 and setting a Dec. 22 deadline to apply.
But the deadline passed without anyone stepping up to adopt Nelson — prompting unfounded rumors that he would then be euthanized — leading to a cascade of criticism of county officials on social media sites.
Reagan Givens, the county’s director of environmental health and animal services, described the outpouring of online opinions and misinformation as “a crazy deal.”
“We’re not a popular department, you could say,” he said Wednesday. “It definitely did raise safety concerns for my staff.”
Due to the absence of public interest in adopting Nelson for the $2,306.54, Letz said county officials are exploring other options for finding Nelson a good home. zeke@express-news.net