Q. I’m seeing more loose dogs in my neighborhood — why?
Graphic/Ian-Alijah Bey
Answered by Gabrielle Chevalier, gabrielle@theenterprisectr.org
East Lake has a stray dog problem, according to 10-year resident Heather Herweyer. A group attacked her car tires, another loose dog killed one of her neighbor’s pets, and a teacher in the neighborhood was bitten while she shielded her students. That’s just the short list of recent stories she’s heard in her time as neighborhood association vice president.
So where did these dogs come from? And who is responsible for them?
The topic also came up at the March 19 City Council work session. Council members learned that in 2023, citations for violations involving loose, neglected, or aggressive animals were about 90% lower than in 2018.
“From what I’ve heard from the public, they don’t feel 90% better about animal violations,” said District 2 Councilwoman Jenny Hill during the work session.
Currently, McKamey Animal Center contracts with the City of Chattanooga to handle animal control in city limits. The contract covers about half of the center’s just-under $4 million annual operating budget.
Executive Director Inga Fricke said despite a lower number of recorded violations (which require identifying an owner), about 80% of McKamey’s intake for dogs came from stray pickups last year.
While McKamey tries to return loose dogs to their owners, that’s not possible when litters of puppies or adult dogs are abandoned, as Herweyer says happens often in her area.
East Lake – and Chattanooga as a whole – isn’t the only community dealing with more stray and surrendered dogs. Housing costs and inflation have put a burden on pet owners across the country, leading to a nationwide sheltering crisis.
To combat the problem locally, McKamey offers free vaccines and microchips and, with grant funding, now provides free pet food and basic supplies through its resource center in East Lake.
“We simply do not have the capacity to take in every dog found roaming,” she said. “Our goal is to provide pet owners with the resources they need to keep their pets off the streets, out of the shelter, and in loving homes.”
But for Herweyer, animal shelter overcrowding has become a matter of public safety as well as public health. She said she’d like to see the city’s Office of Community Health become more involved and another Animal Control Officer dedicated to areas with the most strays so they can respond more quickly, rather than a day or more later, as she says often happens.
“The city needs to have tougher policies because it’s really not until a human gets injured that there’s any action or accountability,” Herweyer said. “This is the low hanging fruit of health, to be outside and be able to move and feel safe.”
