The full story
In mid-May, city officials picked up a pair of bulldogs in the Rodeo Palms area, Police Chief Keith Traylor said. The shelter took them in, but in the middle of the night, officials found one of the dogs deceased.
As it stands, Traylor said an investigation is going on to determine what went wrong and what the shelter can do to prevent another death in the future.
“When you have an incident like this, it triggers reviews,” he said. “How can we do things better? Did we do anything wrong?”
Manvel has kept an animal shelter since 2023, Traylor said. This is the first dog death the facility has dealt with.
How it works
Manvel’s animal shelter, which is located in the police department, is meant to hold an animal for up to 72 hours, Traylor said. After that period, the animal is transferred out to one of the city’s partners, such as the Alvin Adoption Center.
The police department is getting set to move into a new, larger building that will expand, among many things, the size and abilities of the city’s animal shelter.
Whereas the smaller building has four kennels, the new building will be able to house up to 12 animals. It will also offer a wash station and space for vaccinations.
At the smaller building, the four kennels are outdoors but covered, Traylor said. In some cases such as inclement weather, Traylor said they have placed the dogs in the department’s holding cells.
The new building will also not be air conditioned, similar to the smaller shelter, but will have a fan ventilation system, as well as a heating system for the colder months, Traylor said.
Diving in deeper
Among the various protocols for the shelter, Traylor said officials are looking at how to document things better, such as keeping closer track of when kennels are cleaned or last checked on. Traylor said his department is also asking for a new program that will allow officials to keep better track of animal health and wellness while at the shelter.
Going further, the shelter is looking to be more cognizant of certain breeds of dogs and the heat. This can become challenging when workers pick up a dog on Friday as animal control isn't available until Monday.
To remedy this, Traylor said he put out a directive for officials to notify animal control—even if animal control is off duty—to allow them to make a decision on what to do with an animal.
Officials on July 16 also provided an update on social media, noting the pair of dogs from May were not scanned for microchips when they arrived, which officials in their initial report said had happened. In the social media update, officials called the oversight "deeply concerning" and said they are looking to correct it.
Other simpler changes include documenting when officials check on the animals. Typically, officers are required to walk and check on the animals’ welfare before they go on duty, Traylor said.
In this incident involving the bulldog, Traylor said officers made the decision to wait until after the rush of the day was over to check on the animals.
Lastly, Traylor said any future animal deaths will be reported to Texas A&M University, which will be able to run tests to determine how the animal died. Since the plan is a new policy, this testing did not occur with the bulldog, Traylor said.
Stay tuned
The investigation, which Traylor noted isn’t specifically into how the dog died but instead what could have been done to prevent it, is ongoing.
Traylor said he plans to share a full debrief on the investigation with the public once it is completed. He hopes the investigation will help the department learn what they can do better.
“I don’t like the knee-jerk reactions and the assumptions that we did something wrong until we have all the facts and evidence,” he said. “If we did do something wrong, we’re going to take accountability.”
