Although animal control officers often respond to dog barking complaints, police officials said Odessans have alternatives if police don’t have enough evidence to issue citations.
Lt. Chris Primeaux, who is over the Odessa Police Department animal control, said officers are only able to issue citations and do something about a noisy animal if they witness the dog barking without being provoked.
“We’ve got to actually be able to see it happening,” Primeaux said.
Since going to a home where a report is made could trigger the dogs to begin barking regardless, Primeaux said it’s often difficult to substantiate such complaints.
OPD spokesman Cpl. Steve LeSueur said four complaints were made against the home at 1 Casa Loma Drive during the past year, which is the house where a prominent Odessa doctor is accused of poisoning two dogs to death and seriously injuring another.
Robert Kevin Lynch, 54, was released Thursday from the Ector County Detention Center on bonds totaling $22,500. He was charged with three counts of animal cruelty, a state jail felony.
The Odessa Municipal Court reported the dog owners do not have any noise-related citations in the past year and LeSueur said he doesn’t know who made the complaint calls against them. A citation costs $250.
The four complaints were made between Feb. 12, 2016, and April 4, 2016, on Friday city officials declined to release who filed the complaints.
But when such complaints do not result in a citation, police officials said there are several alternatives.
One such alternative is filing online complaints on the OPD’s website. Another alternative is people recording their own video of the incidents.
Primeaux said that will ensure that even if officers aren’t around to hear the barking or cannot verify it is unprovoked barking, video could provide the evidence they need.
If residents cannot provide enough evidence to police, LeSueur said they can also request a prosecutor referral form from the municipal court, which is akin to filing charges without the police department.
For more information, call the Odessa Municipal Court at 432-335-3300.
The charges to Lynch stemmed from accusations that Lynch poisoned three dogs at the 1 Casa Loma Drive residence.
Police reported that they were called out to the house on Dec. 20 and Dec. 26, with one dog dying Dec. 26 and another dying Dec. 29.
Police reported that a toxicology report of one dog showed the dog had insecticides toxicity, rodent poison toxicity, NSAID toxicity, grape toxicity, antifreeze toxicity and GI inflammation.
Detectives reportedly collected video evidence showing the person poisoning the dogs was Lynch, and then searched his home and seized antifreeze, Critter Ridder, Gopher Bait 50 and Advil.
“Lynch voluntarily confessed to poisoning the dogs with raw meat mixed with Advil, antifreeze, rodent poison and raisins,” a news release reported.
Attempts to contact Lynch at his home on Chambord Drive for comment were unsuccessful.
Jenny Pham, one of the family members living at the 1 Casa Loma Drive home, was interviewed by CBS 7 and said Lynch berated her family in the past. Six months went by without any contact by Lynch until the Pham family noticed two of their pets appeared ill and eventually died. One, a Yorkie-Chihuahua mix suffered injuries but survived.
“I feel relieved but at the same time through this whole ordeal it’s not going to bring my dogs back,” Jenny Pham said during her interview. “It’s nice knowing justice has been served.”
Some neighbors on Casa Loma Drive said they really haven’t had any complaints about incessant barking going on in their neighborhood.
Rosie Lopez, who lives next door to the Pham family, said her master bedroom faces the Pham’s backyard and said she rarely ever heard loud barking that came from the Pham’s pets. The barking she occasionally heard was not disruptive, Lopez said.
“Dogs do bark during the day when there is construction or someone (is seen) in the alley,” Lopez said. “But none (at night).”
Another neighbor, Jim Bradley, who lives next to Lopez, said he has heard occasional barking but it wasn’t bothersome. Bradley didn’t specify where he heard the barking come from but pointed out that he and his family live “far enough” from the Pham household to hear anything loud.
Bradley didn’t know about the barking complaints until Lynch came to his home several months back and brought it to his attention.
“I really don’t know what the dogs look like,” Bradley said.
