DROUGHT CAUSES SPIKE IN LIVESTOCK OUT CALLS FOR WASHINGTON CO. SHERIFF’S OFFICE

  

The grass may be greener on the other side for livestock in Washington County, but not for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Otto Hanak presented the office’s monthly report to county commissioners on Tuesday, showing that it responded to 136 calls in July of livestock getting out, more than double June’s total of 60 livestock out calls.  Animal calls, such as when a dog is running loose or when an opossum or snake is spotted, were also up last month at 41, compared to 27 the month prior.

Hanak said the ongoing drought is the main contributor to the uptick in livestock calls, but he is nonetheless frustrated at the amount of time deputies have to spend responding to them.

 

Hanak said the issue is made worse by continued difficulties in hiring new staff, leading to a lack of personnel to respond to the amount of calls coming in.

 

Hanak said being short on deputies is one of the reasons the sheriff’s office logged nearly 20,000 fewer miles driven last month than in the previous one, dropping to 67,149 miles in July from 86,243 in June.  Other factors were one vehicle not being used as a new deputy completes training, and the fact that many of the calls deputies responded to last month, including the livestock calls, took longer to resolve, so their vehicles were stopped for long periods of time.

Commissioner Candice Bullock told Hanak she wanted to meet with him later to further review the data presented in order to “paint a better picture.”