Why are stray dogs such an issue in Jackson? Curious Mississippi answers

This is the latest edition of Curious Mississippi, a service to the readers of the Clarion Ledger. Other questions answered by Curious Mississippi have surrounded potholes, cicadas, Jackson's international airport and water availability charges. This story looks at Jackson's challenge dealing with stray dogs.

Jeffery Welborn, 60, set out a bowl of chicken and rice in the front yard of his home, hoping to attract the attention of what he called "a stray, long-haired, red lion pit bull" he'd seen roaming the streets of his neighborhood.

He had done that before. Since November, Welborn — a veteran of the United States Army originally from Monticello — has rescued 12 stray dogs. The dogs are usually seen early in the morning, Welborn said, scavenging for food and water, picking through trash cans up and down his South Jackson neighborhood that is lined with crumbling streets, vacant storefronts and dilapidated houses.

"If you put out a bowl of dog food, you'll find them. They'll come. They're all loose," Welborn said, adding he had seen one just that morning, "a giant, white, brown coon-type dog" searching through garbage bags.

"This one right here, she was over here, then she'd go over here, go down there," he said, standing outside his home with a leashed dog, pointing up and down the street.

The dog Welborn was standing with was the "stray, long-haired red lion pit bull." A few weeks back, Welborn finally got her to venture into his backyard. Unlike previous dogs he has rescued, who he said were timid, injured or aggressive, this one ran right up to him. He decided to keep her, naming her Bella.

For the other dogs Welborn rescued, including one that was pregnant and gave birth to a litter in his home and another that tore up the floors of his kitchen, he took them to Mississippi Animal Rescue League's shelter, a nonprofit organization.

"In these times, people can't afford to feed their dogs, so they let them go. That's just the way it is," Welborn said. "I've never seen the stray dog population get this bad."

Debra Boswell, the communications coordinator for the Mississippi Animal Rescue League, where she previously served as executive director for 40-plus years, said the No. 1 problem is overpopulation.

"People are not spaying or neutering" Boswell said. "They're pets, people are not keeping these pets up and they are everywhere, now you're getting these packs of dogs in the community. We got a report of dogs on Chadwick Drive the other day … We've had a report about a pack of dogs not too long ago behind a school and now we're in breeding season, so a pack of five dogs — depending on how many females — can turn into a pack of 35 dogs."

Living in Jackson, chances are you have heard stories about or even seen packs of stray dogs throughout the city. And, packs of stray dogs have been making headlines for at least 15-plus years now.

Last year, six pit bulls attacked a Jackson woman, sending her to the hospital. In 2022, a stray dog was seen wandering with a severed human arm in its mouth, leading the Jackson Police Department to discover a decapitated body in a nearby abandoned house in the woods outside of South Jackson. In 2018, three feral dogs killed two klipspringers — a type of antelope — and a spur-winged goose at the Jackson Zoo. Ten years before that, at the end of 2008, the zoo saw two separate incidents in about a week: stray dogs first killed two gazelles, then five flamingoes.

The Mississippi Animal Rescue League alone took in over 8,700 animals last year, and about half were dogs, Boswell said. The animals come from not only the Jackson-area, but also throughout the state and even Louisiana and Alabama.

While Mississippi Animal Rescue League is the only open-intake shelter in the city, meaning they don't turn animals away, Boswell said some animals have to be humanely euthanized. She said it has been "very emotionally hard on our entire staff."

Other animal shelters throughout the city have limited capacity. Not only due to the sheer number of strays in the area, but also because Mississippi law states after five days of being in a shelter, a stray animal then becomes the property of the caretaker or shelter, which creates difficulties for housing.

"We just don't have the room. We have a high euthanasia rate; we are open and honest about that simply because if we're not honest with the public about the overpopulation problem, we're not going to solve the problem," Boswell said. "Never mind picking up the strays, there are no proactive, preventative programs going on."

What are the solutions?

Boswell said one solution is to use more of the city's funds for animal control. Another is starting a pet licensing registration program, which in turn could help fund animal control. By registering animals, the city could also have a better idea of the exact population in Jackson. Mississippi Animal Rescue League, as well as Jackson Friends of the Animal Shelter, have made presentations to the Jackson City Council about a registration program in the past, but to no avail, she said.

The Jackson Police Department's animal control unit has only four officers, according to Capt. George Jimerson, who responded to questions from the Clarion Ledger via email. Jimerson said the unit's responsibility is "to respond to calls for service concerning small animals, dog bites, dog attacks and priority animal situations." But the unit will only capture an animal if a shelter has availability, he said. Some animals could ultimately be euthanized if there has been an attack, they are injured and to control the population of stray animals in the city.

"In a lot of places, animal control is kind of the last agency on the list to get funded, but it's one of the most important divisions of your city," Boswell said. "Jackson doesn't have a shelter. They barely have a staff and the animals are out of control … You can't operate a city the size of Jackson without providing animal control services for your population. It's a public hazard."

The City of Jackson closed down its animal shelter, located at 140 Outer Circle in Northwest Jackson, in 2021 due to inhumane conditions and repairs needed to the building. Since then, JPD's small animal control unit has been in charge of handling the stray dog situation.

In a recent Jackson City Council meeting, the city's chief administrative officer, Louis Wright, said the city is "in the process of making necessary repairs at the shelter," such as fixing cages for animals and repairing the buildings' ventilation. The topic was brought up after Ward 2 Councilwoman Angelique Lee said she had received calls about stray dogs in her ward.

Renovations to the city's shelter may come in the future. No word was given on an exact reopening date.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba also explained what the city's long-term goal would be for when the shelter reopens.

"I believe we'd be in a better place if we could have experts in dealing with animals running the actual facility. That would be a better structure in my opinion," Lumumba said. "But until we have an agreement or are able to put that in place, then it will remain with the personnel that we have now."

Readers can submit questions by email to CuriousMississippi@ClarionLedger.com and editors will pick out the best and reporters will answer them in an upcoming edition.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Curious MS: Why are there so many stray dogs in Jackson, MS?