Ray Parker, of Anderson Store Road, attended Tuesday’s fiscal court meeting to complain about stray dogs and of the help he feels he is not getting from the county.

Parker told the court there were stray dogs coming onto his property and sometimes hiding underneath his car growling at him. He is afraid the dogs could bite him and worried because he was on blood thinners.

“I called the dog catcher and he told me to catch the dog and he would come and get it. Well it’s not my job to catch the dog,” said Mr. Parker. The county employs one full-time animal control officer who is responsible for picking up stray animals in the county.

Magistrate Dickie Carter addressed the issue stating Parker was a relative of his, but did not live in his district. “Something needs to be done. It’s the county’s responsibility to take care of this situation. We have a problem with dog catching. I just tell people to shoot the dogs if they can’t get any help,” said Carter who later clarified his comments saying, “You should tell your neighbor first to keep their animals off of your property and then if they come back and try to harm your animals or try to harm you and you can’t get any help then shoot them.

“My animals are more important to me than my neighbor’s animals.”

Sheriff Wallace Whittaker jumped to his feet and told Carter, “People can’t go around shooting dogs. That’s a good way to get PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) down here,” he said.

Whittaker’s deputies and the animal control officer have responded several times to Parker’s calls but according to the sheriff when they arrive at Parker’s home the dogs are gone.

Parker believes the dogs belong to his neighbor, who he said told him if he killed the dogs he would take him to court.

Carter expressed concern about the dog problem in Logan County saying there seems to be a problem with Animal Control.

“There are too many calls for one officer to handle it,” said Whittaker. “We need at least an extra part-time officer in animal control.” Carter said the county was responsible for this problem and needed to do what it took to get it taken care of.”

Whittaker told the court he would purchase a few cages to catch the stray dogs, but warned people not to go out and shoot other people’s dogs unless they or their domestic animals were being attacked.

“There is only three reasons to shoot an animal, one is self defense, another is if the animal poses a danger to domesticated animals and the third is if the animal is harming another person. We don’t need to go out here are start shooting dogs,” said Whittaker.