The Marshall City Council recently approved the appointment of Marshall Pet Adoption Center shelter director Justin Serna as the city’s local rabies authority, a move that will further improve public safety as well as the effective management of the animal population.
The appointment was made at the recommendation of Marshall Police Chief Cliff Carruth.
“We’re asking you to authorize the Marshall Pet Adoption Center manager as the local rabies authority. This is capable through the Texas Health and Safety Code,” Carruth said as he addressed the city council at their recent meeting.
The Texas Health and Safety Code’s Chapter 826 mandates that each municipality designate a local rabies control authority.
“If you think about it, rabies is a disease and that helps keep our citizens safe,” the police chief said. “This gives that person the authority to investigate animal bite instances and oversee quarantine protocols, which, quite frankly, overseeing quarantine protocol gives us tools that we can use as we’re working to improve our animal services.”
According to Section 826.017, which is the Designation of Local Rabies Control Authority section of the Texas Health and Safety Code, the commissioners court of each county and the governing body of each municipality shall designate an officer to act as the local rabies control authority. The officer designated as the local rabies control authority may be the county health officer, municipal health officer, animal control officer, peace officer, or any entity that the commissioners court or governing body considers appropriate.
Through the position, the rabies authority is also directed to promote public health and safety through education enforcement, Carruth noted.
“And in this case, our manager is actually over all of our animal control officers. So, again, our recommendation is to make that appointment,” he said. “This will help us when we’re dealing with reducing dogs at-large through focusing our attention on enforcement, promoting public health, managing that rabies risk and really giving us that ability to quarantine — get us more ability than we have now. It’s something that’s needed. The law authorizes to do this. And that I’m aware of, this will be the first time that we’ve appointed someone in that position. They’re responsible for overseeing the reporting, quarantine, risk assessment and the observation period, which helps us get dogs off the street, who have bitten someone.”
The appointment not only gives the needed authority required but helps with the effective management of the animal population. Responding to a question by Councilwoman Risa Jordan-Anderson, Carruth said the city did have a local rabies control program in place, but didn’t have anyone with the appointed authority to oversee the quarantine aspect.
“That’s really the big deal. We’ve had multiple calls for a dog at-large. Now (when) that dog has bitten someone, this person can oversee the quarantine saying we will not allow the owner or trust the owner to quarantine on their own, we’d have to use another method to ensure that the public is safe,” he explained.
According to Section 826.042 of the Texas Health and Safety Code related to the quarantine of animals, the local rabies control authority or a veterinarian shall quarantine or test in accordance with department rules any animal that the local rabies control authority or veterinarian has probable cause to believe is rabid, may have been exposed to rabies, or may have exposed a person to rabies.
The section goes on to explain that an owner shall submit for quarantine an animal that is reported to be rabid or to have exposed an individual to rabies; or the owner knows or suspects is rabid or has exposed an individual to rabies. The owner shall submit the animal to the local rabies control authority of the county or municipality in which the exposure occurs.
“As it is now, you don’t have the authority to do that. You might can negotiate it, but this gives us authority to enforce that,” said Carruth.
