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Vulnerable animals lose after SPCA closes southern Dallas low-cost vet clinic

Dallas police to meet separately with Operation Kindness and again with SPCA about helping its cruelty unit.

Exposing problems doesn’t count for much on my personal scorecard unless actual solutions ensue.

I had hoped for just that after I revealed in my latest column the SPCA of Texas opted out of its agreement with the Dallas Police Department to provide forensics help and shelter for abused animals at the center of cruelty-unit investigations.

SPCA’s Sept. 1 decision left the detectives, according to an internal DPD memo, without the necessary support and expertise to bring justice for abused and neglected dogs and cats.

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The SPCA stepped away from the work — which it had done for free since 2018 — after failing to reach a deal with DPD over financial reimbursement for future forensics exams, testimony, animal care and myriad other jobs.

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So far the only response, via police spokeswoman Kristin Lowman, is the department will schedule meetings with the SPCA and with the animal welfare group Operation Kindness “to help us on short-term support for the services the animal cruelty unit needs to operate effectively.”

Details of just a few of the cruelty unit’s recent cases — especially of animals who suffered bullet wounds — are the reason for my deep frustration about this impasse. Detectives will continue, as they have for months, to make do with piecemeal help.

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The Dallas Police Department's animal cruelty unit includes Sgt. Daniel Cordero (second from...
The Dallas Police Department's animal cruelty unit includes Sgt. Daniel Cordero (second from left) and detectives (from left) Hannah Tamez, Cathy Blanchard and Mike Bono.(Liesbeth Powers / Staff Photographer)

Most likely any immediate help will come from the already-challenged Dallas Animal Services, the city field and shelter operation that has its hands full right now with the canine influenza virus and more abandoned dogs and cats than it can safely make room for.

The whole sorry mess does nothing but make life harder for the innocent furballs who need our help the most.

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My reporting last week on the breakdown of the SPCA-DPD partnership also turned up another development not previously made public.

On Jan. 13, the SPCA closed its Mary Spencer Spay/Neuter & Wellness Clinic, which for 17 years provided southern Dallas residents free and low-cost animal care.

The 4830 Village Fair Drive location, in a city-owned building just off Interstate 35E and West Ledbetter Drive, is in a part of Dallas that otherwise remains a veterinary desert.

The SPCA of Texas' Mary Spencer Spay/Neuter & Wellness Clinic sits closed on Village Fair...
The SPCA of Texas' Mary Spencer Spay/Neuter & Wellness Clinic sits closed on Village Fair Drive in Oak Cliff.(Liesbeth Powers / Staff Photographer)

Karen Froehlich, SPCA president and CEO, told me last week her organization is moving the operation into its Myron K. Martin Spay/Neuter & Wellness Clinic at 2400 Lone Star Drive. The Martin clinic is part of the main SPCA campus, off Interstate 30 and west of downtown.

A Dec. 22, 2022, memo to the City Council from Assistant City Manager Carl Simpson says the SPCA’s most recent five-year lease expired last January. The nonprofit has since operated on a month-to-month lease.

According to the Simpson memo, the city’s real estate division told Dallas Animal Services the SPCA had requested a 10-year lease extension at the Oak Cliff site at the continued rate of $166 a month.

Rather than agree to such a lengthy lease, Simpson said, he and DAS director MeLissa Webber decided the better way forward was a formal RFP, or request for proposal, process to allow all interested parties, including the SPCA, to submit plans.

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In the meantime, Simpson said, the city encouraged the SPCA to remain in the space, at the same $166 rent, so the critical needs of southern Dallas pet owners could continue to be met.

Webber told me she’s heard talk the city forced SPCA to vacate Village Fair, but she says the opposite is true.

“I didn’t tell them to get out. The city of Dallas didn’t tell them to get out,” she said. “I was hopeful they would stay and submit for the RFP.”

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Webber said she couldn’t support a 10-year lease because animal welfare is evolving so quickly the city can’t afford to get caught in a long-term status quo.

“I would like the organization that has that space to be a true partner of DAS so that we can work together to make sure we’re focusing on surrender prevention and cruelty prevention,” Webber said.

The finalized RFP document, which is still being finalized, will detail specific free and low-cost services the city wants offered at the clinic, including basic medical help, spay and neuter surgeries, disease testing and prevention, microchipping, grooming to trim nails and cut away matted hair, and end-of-life care.

Webber also wants to ensure the tenant provides regular metrics on its work so the city knows residents are being well-served.

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Froehlich told me that the SPCA had been very happy to serve southern Dallas residents but that the city informed her organization earlier this year “they would be changing how the building was going to be used.”

“They were looking for something that would more benefit DAS” on issues designed to better prevent animal surrenders, Froehlich said.

The SPCA provided a timeline Monday of its inquiries regarding the lease, which it said included two emails, one in August and one in November, about when the RFP would be advertised. The SPCA said the city did not respond.

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The nonprofit’s written response regarding its request for a 10-year lease also detailed many repairs it said needed to be made to the Village Fair building.

Asked about the loss of services to southern Dallas residents, for whom the Village Fair site was one of only two free and low-cost clinics south of Interstate 30, Froehlich said the location is not far from the Martin clinic.

Village Fair is 8 to 10 miles south of the SPCA’s main headquarters, depending on your route.

Xavier Gonzales, 4, got acquainted with Sparky at the Dallas Animal Services in Dallas on...
Xavier Gonzales, 4, got acquainted with Sparky at the Dallas Animal Services in Dallas on Dec. 9, 2022. At the time, Dallas Animal Services was trying to find adopters and fosters for 150 dogs to effectively deal with overcrowding and canine influenza.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)
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Regardless of who runs the Village Fair operation, ensuring its success is an example of how Dallas City Hall must make sure its actions match its talk when it comes to a genuine commitment to equity.

The same southern Dallas neighborhoods in which residents are underserved are those with gaps in animal welfare services. Whomever is the best tenant to provide help needs to be selected ASAP.

I hate ending on an even more discouraging note than what I’ve already shared, but I also reached out for an update Monday evening about the status of the poor dog whose beating on the balcony of a southeast Dallas apartment Wednesday night was captured in a viral Facebook video.

You may recall the animal cruelty unit, armed with a civil seizure order, took the dog from the home the next night.

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A veterinarian examined the pet Friday and found no internal or external injuries, not even bruising. In turn, a judge dismissed the civil seizure order, and the Dallas County district attorney’s office ordered the dog be returned to its owner.

Any of us who saw that video can only shudder.