Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

VALLEY — A Valley man complained to the city council on Monday about dogs running loose in his neighborhood.

MLK Drive resident Bradley Gibson expressed frustration that he’d been seeking action on this for close to two years and the problem is still going on.

“The animal control officer sets traps, they don’t stay long and the dogs are back the next day,” Gibson said.

Gibson suspects that a neighbor owns the dogs and lets them run wild. He said he has asked them about it, but they have denied that the dogs were theirs.

Gibson said that two dogs were in his yard on many occasions and had taken with them items such as cushions on chairs from his porch. He said these dogs were not welcome on his property, they were a frequent nuisance and at times had acted aggressively toward him and family members.

“I don’t know what we can do,” he said. “I don’t like dogs. I have been bitten before. I am a good, law-abiding citizen. Not a day goes by when I don’t see dogs running throughout our neighborhood, and I am sick of it.”

Gibson said it was his understanding that people could have dogs in the city as long as they had collars on them and kept them on leashes or in fenced-in yards.

Mayor Leonard Riley said that was true.

Police Chief Mike Reynolds said he could understand Gibson’s frustration. He said Sgt. Dylan Vallia was the city animal control officer and had gone to the neighborhood many times.

“When they see that white truck coming, they head for the wood line,” he said.

Reynolds said a committee is considering possible changes in the city’s animal control ordinance.

“We have set traps in that neighborhood before,” Reynolds said. “We caught a pit bull that had been running loose.”

“We have complaints about dogs all over the city,” said Council Member Randall Maddux.

Reynolds said the animal control officer has gone from working four days a week to working five days and that consideration is being given for him to work on Saturdays.

Planning and Development Director Travis Carter said some proposed changes to the city’s animal control ordinance could be ready for the council’s consideration at its first meeting in June.

Mayor Riley doubted that would solve the kind of problem Gibson has.

Gibson asked if he could have the traps placed in his neighbor’s yard where the two dogs are most of the time.

“I have pictures on my phone of the dogs being in my yard,” Gibson said.

Riley told Chief Reynolds and Sgt. Vallia to do what they had to do to resolve this.

“If the neighbor says the dogs aren’t hers, you can pick them up,” he said.