Full Notification

The City of Farmersville has been conducting yearly animal registrations since 1985 with revisions in 1994 and 2015. These registrations were historically completed at City Hall until 2010-2011 when Animal Control and this process was moved to the police department. Since then, on average, we’ve conducted 10-13 annual animal registrations until about 2013. Since then animal registrations have dwindled down to 3 to 5 and most of those are new residents. Most of our yearly re-registrations are in the single digits currently.

It costs the City of Farmersville $9,500.00 annually to maintain the contract with the Collin County Animal Shelter. Additionally, personnel, equipment, food, temporary shelter, and resources are budgeted annually to cover this service in the city.

More importantly and single handily the biggest issue is the number of either abandoned and/or loose/stray animals that we have to pick-up on a weekly basis in this city. More than half are animals with owners that we have no information so as to return them; most of our dog bite cases there is little to no information i.e.: shot records, vaccinations, or history; and enforcement of this (registration) process has also been non-existent since 2013.

We are simply trying to increase annual pet registration to 1). Return animals to their rightful owners, 2). Mitigate and manage the number of animals we currently house or take to the shelter, 3). Streamline our process to make it easier for owners to register their animals, 4). Comply with State Law: Title 10. Health and Safety of Animals, Chapter 822. Regulation of Animals, and 5). City Ordinance Secs 11-116-11-124: Division 5 – Registration.    

There will be no effort made to go to door checking pet registrations. The enforcement portion of failing to register your dog or cat will be done when an animal is picked up and/or upon information received by animal control. Below I’ve provided links to State Law and City Ordinance statutes for your review.   

Summary: This is nothing new or something we just started. This ordinance has been on the books since 1985. Although State law provides us the ability to collect fees through registering animals to replenish equipment and services, there’s no clear expectation or goal that we have organizationally that we’re going to that. We want to be responsive to the health and safety all animals in our community as well to the people who own them and to those who don’t.

This Saturday, June 1^st from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the police station at 134 N Washington we’ll be registering dogs and cats. Additionally we’ll have extended hours on June 7^th and 14^th till 7:00 p.m. We are also working on providing no to low cost vaccinations for animals that need it. We would like all city-residents to please take advantage of these date(s) but if not, you can register your animals Mon-Fri 8a to 5p

Respectfully,
Mike Sullivan
Chief of Police          
 
 State Law https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/HS/htm/HS.822.htm

• City of Farmersville Ordinance