MPD cracking down on animal abandonment offenders

By Jacob Sturm
[email protected]

A recent uptick in animal abandonments at the Mustang Dog Park has caught the attention of
the Mustang Police Department.

In a Facebook post from the past week, MPD stated six abandonments occurred with four of
those animals being puppies. The post indicated the actions are against the law according to
Oklahoma State Statute 21.1691 and Mustang Municipal Ordinance 14–87.

Mike Wallace, Mustang Chief of Police, also reiterated that point to the Mustang Times during a
conversation Tuesday morning.

“That’s certainly an illegal act…” Wallace said. “You just cannot abandon animals, and we have
seen that happening over the years. Currently, we’ve had a couple of instances of late where
that’s happened. Although it may seem a convenient way for someone to be very irresponsible
and disregard of a pet that they no longer want, that is absolutely not the answer because it’s
illegal and we will prosecute that.”

Wallace said people who know that they cannot properly care for a pet should not ever enter
into the responsibility.

For those who have a life-changing situation that prevents them from properly caring for a pet,
Wallace said there are shelters and adoption options for others to help rehome the animals.

Wallace mentioned a large number of people took on dogs after COVID and realized they could
no longer care for them. That presented issues at the time, but Wallace didn’t know the reason
for the recent uptick in the problem.

“We’re going to increase enforcement there (at the dog park),” Wallace said. “We’ve got
camera systems in place that will help us catch people who are dropping these dogs off… They
need to know that we intend to step that enforcement up and fully prosecute people that are
doing it.”

Those cameras have already been in place, but will now be repositioned and reviewed. That
means more man hours for the process, but will not mean a cost being incurred that the city
would have to finance.

Wallace said the intake of abandoned animals increases the time spent at the animal welfare
center working with the animals as opposed to offering other services.

In recent weeks, the Animal Welfare Center asked the community for help with food donations
for the animals. Wallace said the community has stepped up well since then, and that the
Center is in a good position at the moment.

“We rely quite heavily on donated food items, and we’ve always had a good inventory,”
Wallace said. “We just got a little bit low, and probably because our inventory is up. I mean,
that’s just the way it goes during the summer time (where) we typically tend to have a lot more
animals in house.”

The Animal Welfare Center also has animals adopted out of the facility regularly.

For those looking to adopt an animal, the Animal Welfare Center has people who can help fit
you with the right type of animal, while you can make sure it is what you want to do before a
decision is made.

There is a budget built for the Animal Welfare Center, but that budget is managed under the
Police Department.

For the time being, if you see anyone abandoning an animal at the dog park, MPD tells the
public to not intervene and call the police department at (405)376-2488.