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Response on skunks an issue again
BY B.J. POLLOCK
bj@fbherald.com
A Fort Bend County resident who’s had run-ins with skunks before says the way weekend calls are handled in such cases stinks.
Jolie Zulkowski, who lives with her family in the Cottonwood area, said her son killed a skunk about 9:30 a.m. Saturday and it took five hours to get someone from Fort Bend Animal Control to pick up the animal.
Zulkowski said she had the same problems two years ago when she killed a skunk, and had just been assured a few weeks ago by Sheriff Milton Wright that protocol has been put in place to handle such calls after hours and weekends.
In June, when a Needville resident and her 9-month-old were bitten by a rabid skunk on a Saturday, several hours passed before Animal Control picked up the animal, which the victims’ family had taken to the hospital where they were being treated.
In that situation, as in Saturday’s, said Zulkowski, no one appeared to know how to handle the call reporting the skunk. Both times, the callers were referred to Texas Parks and Wildlife, which does not handle such calls.
When Zulkowski made a second call to the Sheriff’s Office, the dispatcher had an Animal Control employee return her call.
“He said there was nothing he could do if the skunk didn’t come into contact with humans or animals,” said Zulkowski. “First he told me they didn’t have resources in place to test an animal for rabies and I said, ‘No, you’re wrong.’ But he said, ‘There’s nothing I can do. Just bag it up and leave it for trash pick up’ and he hung up on me.”
After another call to the Sheriff’s Office, Zulkowski called her boss who recommended she get in touch with Lee Ann Klentzman, a reporter for the Fort Bend Star. The two went together to Wright’s home and confronted him wit the situation.
“She wasn’t satisfied with (the way the situation was being handled) and the next thing I know, she’s on my doorstep, wanting to know what to do with the skunk,” Wright said. “I called (Animal Control Supervisor) Vernon Abschneider and he said he’d have the employee call her back and meet her.”
Wright said the employee “flat said, ‘I ain’t going; tell her to destroy it” when Zulkowski first talked to him, but eventually conceded.
“If it had been under our control, we’d have handled it,” Wright said. “A skunk out in the daytime — yeah, it’s rabid. We could have taken the skunk, but I didn’t want to get in their business. All we do is dispatch for them and we contact them.”
Wright said his office’s policy in dealing with after-hours animal calls — other than livestock, which deputies handle themselves — is to contact Animal Control for the caller.
“As far as what their policy is, I don’t know,” he said.
Abschneider could not be reached Tuesday morning, but on Monday he told the Fort Bend Herald, “There’s really no story. She shot a skunk, the skunk will be tested, end of story. This is not newsworthy. She was told if she wanted to, she could dispose of the skunk.”
When asked about his employee’s comment that his office doesn’t have the resources to test skunks for rabies, Abschneider said, “The rabies lab doesn’t want to be overrun with animals that aren’t involved in exposure (to humans or other animals).”
But Zulkowski said she doesn’t know who or what the skunk came in contact with before it wandered onto her property.
She said about five hours after her initial phone call, the Animal Control employee met her at a gas station in Richmond and retrieved the animal from the bed of her truck without speaking a word.
She and Klentzman followed him “to make sure he went to Animal Control, but he didn’t.”
Zulkowski said they followed him to Bamore Road in Rosenberg, then to the New Territory subdivision, where they were pulled over by two deputies who said the employee had reported someone was following him and he felt threatened .
“What I find totally appalling is that I can’t get one person to come to my house, but I can get two officers to find me in the middle of New Territory and pull me over,” she said. “Do I need to fabricate the story and say someone was bitten, so it’s a public safety concern. No. It’s a public safety concern whether anybody came in contact with it or not.”
Zulkowski said she contacted Precinct 1 Commissioner Richard Morrison Monday because Wright suggested she do so.
Morrison told the Herald, “We’re working to make it more efficient” and said the five hours it took to handle Saturday’s incident was a “substantial improvement” over the length of time it took to handle the skunk bite incident earlier this year.
“But that’s still not good enough,” he added. “I’d like to get it down to about two hours. I’ve glad we’ve got some improvement.”
Zulkowski said hopes the breakdown in communications is fixed before another such incident arises.
“I thought there were procedures in place,” she said. “Well, they weren’t working Saturday.”
HOW TO HELP
To report a possible rabid animal, call your local Animal Control authority:
County: 281-342-1512
Rosenberg: 832-595-3490
Sugar Land: 281-275-2596
Stafford: 281-261-3950
Missouri City: 281-403-8707
Jolie Zulkowski, who lives with her family in the Cottonwood area, said her son killed a skunk about 9:30 a.m. Saturday and it took five hours to get someone from Fort Bend Animal Control to pick up the animal.
Zulkowski said she had the same problems two years ago when she killed a skunk, and had just been assured a few weeks ago by Sheriff Milton Wright that protocol has been put in place to handle such calls after hours and weekends.
In June, when a Needville resident and her 9-month-old were bitten by a rabid skunk on a Saturday, several hours passed before Animal Control picked up the animal, which the victims’ family had taken to the hospital where they were being treated.
In that situation, as in Saturday’s, said Zulkowski, no one appeared to know how to handle the call reporting the skunk. Both times, the callers were referred to Texas Parks and Wildlife, which does not handle such calls.
When Zulkowski made a second call to the Sheriff’s Office, the dispatcher had an Animal Control employee return her call.
“He said there was nothing he could do if the skunk didn’t come into contact with humans or animals,” said Zulkowski. “First he told me they didn’t have resources in place to test an animal for rabies and I said, ‘No, you’re wrong.’ But he said, ‘There’s nothing I can do. Just bag it up and leave it for trash pick up’ and he hung up on me.”
After another call to the Sheriff’s Office, Zulkowski called her boss who recommended she get in touch with Lee Ann Klentzman, a reporter for the Fort Bend Star. The two went together to Wright’s home and confronted him wit the situation.
“She wasn’t satisfied with (the way the situation was being handled) and the next thing I know, she’s on my doorstep, wanting to know what to do with the skunk,” Wright said. “I called (Animal Control Supervisor) Vernon Abschneider and he said he’d have the employee call her back and meet her.”
Wright said the employee “flat said, ‘I ain’t going; tell her to destroy it” when Zulkowski first talked to him, but eventually conceded.
“If it had been under our control, we’d have handled it,” Wright said. “A skunk out in the daytime — yeah, it’s rabid. We could have taken the skunk, but I didn’t want to get in their business. All we do is dispatch for them and we contact them.”
Wright said his office’s policy in dealing with after-hours animal calls — other than livestock, which deputies handle themselves — is to contact Animal Control for the caller.
“As far as what their policy is, I don’t know,” he said.
Abschneider could not be reached Tuesday morning, but on Monday he told the Fort Bend Herald, “There’s really no story. She shot a skunk, the skunk will be tested, end of story. This is not newsworthy. She was told if she wanted to, she could dispose of the skunk.”
When asked about his employee’s comment that his office doesn’t have the resources to test skunks for rabies, Abschneider said, “The rabies lab doesn’t want to be overrun with animals that aren’t involved in exposure (to humans or other animals).”
But Zulkowski said she doesn’t know who or what the skunk came in contact with before it wandered onto her property.
She said about five hours after her initial phone call, the Animal Control employee met her at a gas station in Richmond and retrieved the animal from the bed of her truck without speaking a word.
She and Klentzman followed him “to make sure he went to Animal Control, but he didn’t.”
Zulkowski said they followed him to Bamore Road in Rosenberg, then to the New Territory subdivision, where they were pulled over by two deputies who said the employee had reported someone was following him and he felt threatened .
“What I find totally appalling is that I can’t get one person to come to my house, but I can get two officers to find me in the middle of New Territory and pull me over,” she said. “Do I need to fabricate the story and say someone was bitten, so it’s a public safety concern. No. It’s a public safety concern whether anybody came in contact with it or not.”
Zulkowski said she contacted Precinct 1 Commissioner Richard Morrison Monday because Wright suggested she do so.
Morrison told the Herald, “We’re working to make it more efficient” and said the five hours it took to handle Saturday’s incident was a “substantial improvement” over the length of time it took to handle the skunk bite incident earlier this year.
“But that’s still not good enough,” he added. “I’d like to get it down to about two hours. I’ve glad we’ve got some improvement.”
Zulkowski said hopes the breakdown in communications is fixed before another such incident arises.
“I thought there were procedures in place,” she said. “Well, they weren’t working Saturday.”
HOW TO HELP
To report a possible rabid animal, call your local Animal Control authority:
County: 281-342-1512
Rosenberg: 832-595-3490
Sugar Land: 281-275-2596
Stafford: 281-261-3950
Missouri City: 281-403-8707
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Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of fbherald.com.
county resident wrote on Nov 10, 2009 12:52 PM:
" The animal control dept. is a joke. The supervisor Vernon could care less. "
fortbend wrote on Nov 10, 2009 4:50 PM:
" If you are in need of animal controls assistance do not waste your time.
They will not answer calls. They are getting paid to do their jobs that they are not doing. "
They will not answer calls. They are getting paid to do their jobs that they are not doing. "
SoundMind wrote on Nov 11, 2009 11:56 AM:
" This is a very familiar story when it comes to Animal Control issues whether it is with the county or city. I have been told to get trap cages from them and trap the animal and take it to Animal Control myself?!?! What do our city and county taxes pay them for?? I know they are not busy daily and they WILL NOT answer the ON-Call duty phone during the weekends so don't even try calling. "
Confused wrote on Nov 10, 2009 12:17 PM: