Four dogs were found dead along a two-mile stretch of 151st Street in Lubbock County this week, after a caller initially reported seeing as many as 20 dead animals over time. The Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office confirmed they found four dogs that had been hit by vehicles and acknowledged the caller’s concern that animal abandonment along that road is an ongoing issue—not a one-off tragedy.
LCSO’s response was essentially a public service announcement: please don’t abandon dogs in the county. The department noted that unlike the City of Lubbock, the county does not have its own animal shelter, which limits their ability to pick up stray animals because, well, there’s nowhere to put them.
City of Lubbock Animal Services does accept strays and owner surrenders, though they remind the public that the shelter should be a “last resort.” Which is a nice sentiment, assuming you have literally any other option that doesn’t involve tossing a dog onto a rural roadway like unwanted furniture.
So here we are again—dogs dying on county roads, residents reporting a long-term problem, and officials urging people to “please don’t” do the bad thing, while quietly acknowledging there’s no real system in place to stop it. In Lubbock County, personal responsibility is king… right up until it needs infrastructure.
If the solution is “don’t abandon dogs” but there’s nowhere for abandoned dogs to go, is this still a warning—or just a shrug with a badge?