It’s disturbing to read about pets and other domestic animals in the Chinook Observer’s 911 Dispatch Reports and the Long Beach Police Blotter.

Rarely does a week go by without one or more reports of a person or their dog being attacked by someone else’s loose and vicious mutt on neighborhood streets or the beach. Pets have been killed or seriously injured, and people have sought emergency treatment for their own wounds.

Wildlife is also attacked by roaming dogs, as was the case when two dogs mauled a terrified deer trapped inside the fenced Ilwaco boatyard. It’s infuriating to think of rotten owners irresponsibly allowing large dogs to roam around towns unsupervised.

Barking dogs, trespassing goats and hogs, marauding cats and other animal issues detract from quality of life and do enormous damage to populations of wild birds and small mammals. There have been well-documented situations in which such annoyances explode into life-threatening confrontations between neighbors. Like the famous “broken windows theory” of policing — in which intervening in small things now avoids future chaos — failure to intervene in such squabbles increases the risk of much more serious situations somewhere down the road.

Occupying a different but nevertheless important level of concern are the harmless stray animals at constant risk of being hit by vehicles, attacked by coyotes or other predators, or being lost to their original owners forever. In south county, the humane society’s animal shelter serves a vital role by taking in strays and reuniting them with owners, in addition to saving hundreds of surplus pets from euthanasia. In north county, Raymond and South Bend police are being aided by a citizen volunteer on a stopgap basis, but the situation is still described as dire after the former shelter there ceased operation.

It must make Pacific County dispatchers and law officers sad to have to tell callers over and over again that we have no animal control here, a situation we doubtless share with many of Washington’s mostly rural counties. The lack generates a lot of upset and certainly results in avoidable animal suffering.

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It must make Pacific County dispatchers and law officers sad to have to tell callers over and over again that we have no animal control here, a situation we doubtless share with many of Washington’s mostly rural counties. The lack generates a lot of upset and certainly results in avoidable animal suffering.

Aside from addressing the need for a north county pound, there’s much more to fixing this problem than just hiring a “dog catcher.” Here in Washington, animal control officers are commissioned cops. Requirements include graduation from the Basic Law Enforcement Reserve Academy and the Washington Animal Control Academy and successful completion of animal control officer’s field training.

If there is one overriding truism of local government, it is that there’s never enough money to go around to do all the things citizens (including newspaper editors) would like to have done. However, we’d argue that addressing the animal frustrations outlined here would do much to satisfy residents and avoid more serious problems from happening. Among many negative outcomes, the worst that comes to mind is a child being mauled by somebody’s unsupervised vicious dog. It’s worth a lot to avoid such a possibility — a tragedy that is all too easy to imagine.

Some possible steps to consider:

• A countywide dog licensing requirement also adopted within the four incorporated cities. Funds raised could go to training and paying an animal control officer.

• Enforcing a leash law on the beach. Too often, one person’s idea of running their dog behind the pickup or allowing them to roam around unsupervised has turned into someone else nightmare.

• Ordinances imposing penalties for barking dogs, trespassing domestic livestock, and loose domestic cats. All these can and do go beyond mere nuisances. In the U.S. alone, cats are estimated to kill 2.4 billion birds a year — not counting innumerable chipmunks, possums, rabbits and other innocuous creatures.

Pets are wonderful additions to our lives, but it’s up to each of us to ensure our pets behave themselves and aren’t permitted to harm or annoy others. It’s time to start getting ahead of these issues.