Published: September 01, 2008 09:03 am      

Cattle calls keep Animal Control busy

Livestock can dangerous in roadway

One of the not as commonly known facts about the City of Duncan is that there are plenty of farmers who keep cattle within city limits.

While this is not illegal, it can pose some problems, if by off chance one or two or more cattle escape the confines of their pasture.

Duncan Animal Control Kennel Master Teresa Cabello said that cattle calls happen more often in the summertime than at any other time of the year.

“The creeks dry out and cattle will crawl out and look four greener grass and more water,” Cabello said. “It’s instinct. That’s why it’s important to have plenty of grass and water for farm animals.”

Heavy rain storms have also been known to damage fences and give just enough room for animals to roam free.

Construction of property and roads with the rapid expansion of city limits have also had an impact on the wear and tear of fences, though an indirect one at that, she said.

“Farmers just need to check their fencing on a regular basis,” she said.

When cattle do get out, they meander this way and that and can get in the way of traffic and possibly pose a danger to the public, she said.

Animal control will try and contact the owner from a list they’ve acquired over the years, but unfortunately, it doesn’t include every owner’s contact information.

“It isn’t a law to notify us with that information,” Cabello said.

If the owner cannot be contacted and the cattle becomes a danger to the public, animal control may have to resort to other means of resolving the issue because they don’t have access to horses or trailers to round the cattle up.

“That could include anywhere from tranquilization of the animal to worse,” she said. “Obviously, we don’t want to do that, but public safety is our number one priority.”

Cabello shared a story of a time when it was dark and raining at night. Animal control received a call of cattle in the roadway. They went out there and couldn’t find the owner.

“The cow ran across the highway and caused an accident,” she said. “It was a woman and small child. It would have been much worse if the cow was bigger.”

If animal control can contact an owner, Cabello said, then the owners will usually be able to bring out horses and trailers and round them up.

“We want to work with owners and not have to give them citations,” she said.

Citations start at $100.

Sometimes a call to animal control about cattle will turn out to be just a false alarm.

“It helps to be able to contact the owners in that situation as well to let them know what happened,” she said.

If anyone owns cattle within city limits, they should contact animal control at 580-252-6608 to make sure they have updated contact information for the owners.