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Forget Mad Cow Disease: Rabies Is on the Rise Among Texas Cattle

By Simone Carter

Jul 15, 2021

In 2021, rabies has spiked among Texas cattle.

The Dallas shelter hasn’t had to euthanize an adoptable animal for space in about 18 months.

Dallas Animal Services Doesn’t Cry Wolf. When They Ask for Help, They Need It.

By Jacob Vaughn

Jun 11, 2021

The shelter takes in 60-100 animals a day. In the first week of June, they took in 472 dogs and cats.

North Texas' Mountain Lion is Dead, State's Wildlife Department Says

By Simone Carter

Dec 17, 2020

The state's wildlife department is reporting that the mountain lion recently spotted in North Texas has been killed.

Animal shelters have been seeing interesting trends since the start of the pandemic.

Pandemic-Related Hardship Hasn't Caused Spike in Pet Surrenders, Dallas Advocates Say

By Simone Carter

Dec 10, 2020

The pandemic is causing interesting trends at local animal shelters.

Animal Advocates Worry North Texas Man's Death Could Inspire Big Cat Vengeance Killings

By Simone Carter

Dec 8, 2020

While it's unlikely that a mountain lion mauled a man in North Texas, animal advocates worry the allegation could inspire big cat vengeance killings.

The proposed cuts to Dallas Animal Services' budget include $50,000 for body cameras.

Some Say Dallas Animal Services Officers Need Body Cameras To Keep Them Accountable

By Jacob Vaughn

Sep 1, 2020

Local animal rights advocates say they have some worries about proposed $380,000 cuts to Dallas Animal Services' budget. The cuts in the recent draft city budget being worked on by the City Council include $50,000 to DAS's body camera budget, $249,000 in salaries for one vet and one manager III position,...

Three playful puppies at Dallas Animal Services. More dogs are making it out of shelters alive, the city says.

Dallas Animal Services Actually Doing a Bang-Up Job, According to Annual Report

By Stephen Young

Jan 16, 2020

It doesn't take a particularly good memory to remember when Dallas had a problem with loose dogs. A crisis is probably a more accurate way to describe it. A 2016 study found that there were literally thousands of loose dogs roaming the streets of southern Dallas contributing to a spike...

Chapo and Deputy Ross work side-by-side all day long.

Texas Law Enforcement Relieved They Can Now Keep K-9s in Forever Family

By Meredith Lawrence

Dec 27, 2019

Dallas County Sheriff's Deputy Latorrez Jones gently smooths his dog Hawk’s ears and chest fur. Hawk’s jaws lock firmly on the thick burlap arm guard wrapped around Deputy Kevin Ross' arm. As Ross pulls back, simulating an attempt to escape, Hawk’s grip holds steady. He’s been trained to bite once,...

Meredith Ellis and her father, G.C. Ellis, in the barn on their ranch.

Can Raising Cattle Be Environmentally Friendly? These Texas Ranchers Say Yes.

By Meredith Lawrence

Sep 17, 2019

Thigh-high grasses and plant stalks thwack the sides of the all-terrain buggy as Meredith Ellis maneuvers it down a faint double track through a dense pasture. Grasshoppers launch out of the way, whirring past bright purple, thistle-like Leavenworth's eryngo that poke up alongside creamy milkweed flowers. Yellow and purple wildflowers...

Penny (left) chases coyotes five times her size; Dorothy lived on a diet of cats and squirrels her first two years. You really want to leave your dog off the leash next to mine?

Your Dog Is Not a Child. If You Died at Home, Would Your Child Eat You?

By Jim Schutze

Aug 7, 2019

If the people who walk their dogs off the leash in my neighborhood have children at home, I feel sorry for the children. How you train your dog is how you train your kid. So the way they must train their kids is, “Go ahead and play in traffic, little...

Who let the dogs out? Their owner, Dak Prescott, wasn't home at the time. Officers later found an unsecured door.

Dak Prescott's Dog Got Out and Bit Someone, Frisco Police Say

By Stephen Young

Feb 26, 2019

Dak Prescott's dogs got a chance to break into the open field Monday morning and took it, Frisco police say. Residents of the suburb have more to fear than just coyotes, it seems. Around lunchtime Monday, one of the Cowboys quarterback's neighbors near Hilton Head Lane and Princess Caroline Court...

Coyotes Again Threatening to Return Frisco to Its Natural, Primitive State

By Stephen Young

Jan 30, 2019

Maybe North Texas has already sprawled too far. Tuesday morning, Frisco police issued their latest alert about a coyote attack, continuing a wave that first struck the city last year. This time, cops got a call at about 7 a.m. that a jogger had been attacked about 20 minutes earlier...

This Just In: My Wife Does Not Eat Mealworms. After All.

By Jim Schutze

Jan 17, 2019

I don’t know how many people know this, but my wife, Mariana Greene, was a pioneer of urban chicken-keeping during her days as a garden columnist for The Dallas Morning News, years before backyard chickens became chic. She helped make them chic. To this day she takes her chickens extremely...

Lakewood resident Sonali Kumar said the flies in her home are at least half an inch long. A gray fly with stripes and no protruding biting mouth parts means this fly is most likely just a house fly.

Revenge of the Flies

By Nashwa Bawab

Oct 5, 2018

Dallas might be having a bit of a fly problem. Recently, residents of Dallas have been complaining online about the swarms of flies invading their homes, their lives and their minds. Even Jennifer Gracheck of MosquitoNix pest control in Dallas, said over the last month and a half they have received more...

West Nile Virus Precautions are Still Needed This Late in the Season

By Nashwa Bawab

Oct 5, 2018

The city of Dallas will be spraying pesticide today in two neighborhoods where mosquitoes tested positive for West Nile virus. The neighborhoods are the 6700 block of Sperry in Lakewood and the 6400 block of Prestonshire in Preston Hollow, which will be sprayed between 9 p.m. tonight and 5 a.m...

The Trinity River Audubon Center in Dallas has decorative decals on their windows so birds don't collide with them and die.

Dallas City Windows are Killing Hummingbirds

By Nashwa Bawab

Oct 1, 2018

(Editor's note: I smoke, so I go outside our building a lot. Lot of birds crash into our glass office building, but right now it's like a hummingbird apocalypse out there. I really like hummingbirds, and I'm the boss, so here's a story. BTW, if you're a hiker and like...

Three puppies who would likely not be subject to any kind of dangerous-dog ordinance at Dallas Animal Services.

Dallas Wants to Toughen Up Dangerous-Dog Ordinance

By Stephen Young

Jun 12, 2018

After a number of high-profile dog attacks, including the summer 2016 mauling death of Antoinette Brown in South Dallas and an April attack near Fair Park, Dallas is prepared to strengthen its dangerous-dog ordinance and establish criminal penalties for owners whose dogs attack. Under a proposal from Dallas Animal Services,...

Ed Jamison, director of Dallas Animal Services.

If Pit Bulls Are Not to Blame, Then We Are. So What Do We Do About That?

By Jim Schutze

Apr 18, 2018

Another story this week of a Dallas resident viciously mauled by pit bull dogs: This latest victim, a 35-year-old woman, was attacked early Sunday morning by four dogs but saved by good Samaritans on Hamilton Avenue just southeast of the Cotton Bowl. It’s really hard to see something like this,...

Dallas Woman in Stable Condition After Pit Bull Attack Near Fair Park

By Stephen Young

Apr 16, 2018

The victim of pit bull mauling near Fair Park early Sunday morning remains hospitalized in stable condition, according to the Dallas Police Department. About 2 a.m. Sunday, four pit bulls cornered a woman, whom DPD hasn't identified, as she walked through her neighborhood in the 4300 block of Hamilton Avenue,...

Do we not have a social obligation to protect pets that is morally similar to our duty to protect endangered species?

We Need to Find a Way to Stop the Deep Ellum Guy from Getting Dogs

By Jim Schutze

Apr 10, 2018

First rule: I want to talk about how human beings treat dogs sometimes. No fair talking about how human beings treat kids sometimes. I know. Bad. We’ll talk about that another day. But, OK, you brought it up, so let me ask you a question. People have an absolute right...

Animal Welfare

Plano Native Finds Invasive Carp in Texas Waters

Exotic Cat Rancher Locked Up On Federal Gun Charges

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