ANOTHER DOG DAY AT MUNICIPAL COURT

By Juan Montoya
On any given day, a small group of pet owners in Brownsville are called to appear before Municipal Judge John Chosy to defend themselves against citations issued by the Animal Control officers roaming the city looking out after the best interests of Brownie and Fido.
On Tuesday, as their names were called out by the court secretary, a handful of Brownsville residents sat on the chairs lined up in the hallway leading to the judge's chambers.
Maria (not her name) was there to defend herself against a citations incorrectly termed "humane treatment of animals."
"I think I'll plead guilty," she quipped before entering the judge's office. "Yes, your honor, I'm guilty of treating my dog humanely."
Apparently, a neighbor (and it's always a neighbor) was bothered when she told him that he shouldn't allow his dog to come and, as she called, "do his business" on her property. The neighbor, in turn, reported her to the animal control people for having a skinny dog.
"The food is right there along with his water dish," she complained to her fellow citees. "There are such things as skinny dogs, just as there are skinny people. It's not like I don't feed him. He's just skinny, that's all. What if he was fat? Would they accuse me of having an obese dog?"
One of her fellow accused (Jose) said some neighborhood kids are always throwing rocks at his two dogs who he lets wander loose in the fenced yard. A few days ago, a prankster opened the gate and one of them got loose and was running down the street. A neighbor (of course) reported the loose dog to animal control and the wanderlust struck pooch was nabbed and placed in the pound. After paying a fee, he went out and got rabies vaccine for both dogs, and was threatened by the pooch police that they would put the pups to sleep if they every got loose again.
Another charge against him was that the dogs would cause a disturbance with their barking.
"I went out and got a lock to put on the fence gate," he said. "You should see the pile of rocks that I found in the yard. If you throw rocks at a dog it's going to bark."
The various citations ranged from pets pooping (doing their business, as Maria put it) on the sidewalk to causing disturbance in the neighborhood (as in Jose's case). Another had to present a death certificate to prove that the outlaw pet in question was now deceased which made the citation moot.
In the end, Chosy chose not to penalize Maria for having a skinny dog and Jose got off with probation for six months in which the dogs should not be loose on the street.
"The good thing about it is that I don't have to take the dogs to a probation officer," Jose quipped. "After serving their probation, the citation will be dropped and they won't have a record."