Another dog has been abandoned in a historic area of Dallas County that has become known as a dumping ground for unwanted pets. A local nonprofit group aims to end this cruel practice.
Dowdy Ferry Road was once known for the ferry crossing along the route that enabled travelers in the mid-1800s to easily cross the Trinity River. It was named after the operator of the ferry, early Dallas settler Allanson Dawdy.
A century later, the road was immortalized in the 1977 England Dan-John Ford Coley song, “Dowdy Ferry Road.”
In more recent years, the road has become notorious as a place where people dispose of dead animals and abandon their unwanted pets, but local activists are working to change that.
The nonprofit Dowdy Ferry Animal Commission (DFAC) was organized in 2015 to combat animal cruelty and the illegal dumping of animals along the route. The organization erected cameras to monitor the area, and the cameras have captured surveillance footage of some of the alleged dumping incidents.
In March, one of the surveillance footage videos posted to social media went viral, sparking outrage among animal lovers. The video showed a man taking a dog out of his truck and then driving away as the canine chased after him. A car traveling along the road came close to hitting the dog.
The video led to the arrest of the man on animal cruelty charges, and he was also placed on an immigration hold by ICE authorities. The dog was reportedly adopted by a new family.
“It makes me sick to my stomach when I see people that will take the time to take their dog, drive out here, and throw it out like trash,” Jeremy Boss, a founding member of DFAC, told WFAA in response to the incident.
Now another video has emerged showing two people abandoning a young pit bull in the 2400 block of Dowdy Ferry Road in the evening hours of May 23. The two individuals unload the dog and a wire kennel from the back of a blue four-door hatchback and drive away.
The dog wanders around the area and into the road during the night. The next day, two men in a blue pickup truck, assisted by a utility worker in a yellow safety vest, pick up the dog and take him away from the scene.
Investigators are searching for all the persons involved in this most recent incident, including the persons who took the dog away, so that they can confirm that the dog is safe.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call DFAC at 214-543-4419 or Dallas Animal Services at 469-331-6640.
Pet owners who can no longer care for their animals are encouraged to surrender them to Dallas Animal Services or the SPCA rather than abandon them. The penalty for abandoning an animal, a Class A misdemeanor, includes a fine of up to $4,000 or up to one year in prison, or both.
