I ART Globe strikes again with two amazing mural projects getting underway in April

April 1st weekend was a busy one for I Art Globe!

While the High Desert Humane Society got a new sign, the Cottonwood Underpass Project (aka the CUP) ramped up south of the city. This is an art installation, a community beautification and a graffiti abatement project all in one.

The first Phase, completed over the weekend, included prep and primer. And it couldn’t have been done without the amazing help of Rose and Dave, Ronnie, David and Kristie, Dickey, the Smith Bros: Matthew and Kyle, John from United Rental, Tammy, Rayel, Jackie + Shelby Barrowdale - Gila Monster Construction, Chad @ Uptons, Joe Brown, Buz, Sheryl, Kendall, Uriel, Richard, Vince, Fernando, Samuel, Myron, Rob, and Erica. The 1st Presbyterian Church, too!

Phase 2 follows, and it’s all about the art Featuring the talents of 5 locally sourced, homegrown spray can muralists. And a shout out to Ace Hardware and Ronnie Sanchez for our inside connection to everything paint!

Thank you, everyone. Our cup runneth over with gratitude.

three 100-lb Great Dane/Mastiff “puppies” and it is making it hard for her to socialize them or even let them out in her own yard.

“I can see the dog park from my house,” Scales says. “I won’t let my son walk two blocks with them because I have to check the street before we let our dogs out to load them into a vehicle to drive up the hill.”

In the past, Scales has not been bothered by dogs running in the neighborhood she has lived in for 15 years. There was even a time when one neighbor’s dog would escape and hang out with dogs Scales previously owned. She even considered adopting it before finding out who its owner was.

But recently, a different neighbor’s Pitbull mix had puppies and that is when the current problems began. At first, she had a good relationship with the puppies, but as the dogs have aged they have become more aggressive towards her dogs and it is becoming a problem for her.

“I’ve had to pull [the mother] off of pretty much every dog in the neighborhood,” Scales says. “I don’t think that she’s tried to bite any people yet, but when I put her in her yard and closed the gate, she came after me.”

One day Scales, who worked in the Gila County Health Department for a decade, thought she heard the dogs attacking chickens in the neighborhood and called both Animal Control and the GPD.

She says the County told her to call the City of Globe and was told the City would talk to the dog owners.

“They say they’ll talk with the owners but nothing stops, nothing changes,” Scales says. “If they get into my yard I’m pretty sure it’s not going to turn out well, and I will protect my dogs: These are my dogs. This is their property.”

Ultimately, Scales just wants to see local officials take the problem as seriously as other communities in the state.

“My sister lives down in the Valley and one of her dogs bit somebody,” Scales says. “There was no, ‘that’s okay,’ it was: ‘you’re paying the bills, and this is how it is,’ but you don’t see that up here.”

Liability

While owners of loose dogs are liable for attacks on people or other animals, the issue is not black and white and if someone kills or injures a loose dog, they could be liable to civil prosecution themselves.

“The dog owner would have to sue civilly if they wanted any type of compensation,” Casteneda says. “That would be a civil case through Justice Court and if she fired a firearm in a residential area, she would have to deal with the sheriff’s office about that.”

There are also laws surrounding discharge of a firearm within the City of Globe, even in one’s own house, so if someone shoots a dog that enters their house they could be liable to prosecution.

Chief Walters was not aware of Scales’ specific situation, but says while they deal with calls on a limited basis, the responsibility ultimately falls on Animal Control.

“A dog at large call or a dog barking or something like that, we might be involved in the initial call but it’s all going to go to the animal control center,” he says. “Those guys deal with all that.”

Casteneda says his officers will get involved if there are multiple complaints about specific dogs and they will try to deescalate a bad situation.

“When there’s a dog at large citation given and they go to a hearing multiple times, my officers do get involved,” he says “We’ll go to their house and see if we can help show them how the dogs are getting out and give them some advice on how to keep their dogs in. We’ve done that.”

Costs

The costs of dog attacks can go well beyond medical bills and fines though.

According to Haas, if one of her highly trained dogs is debilitated or killed, it can represent tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage.

A woman she works with who has two scent dogs has more than $50,000 invested in their training. Haas herself has certified therapy dogs as well as obedience training for her more aggressive dogs amounting to more than $20,000.

There is also liability if a 4-H training is attacked from outside.

“You have a bunch of kids under the age of 18 that can barely control their own dogs, much less two aggressive dogs,” she says. “When you have two dogs that gang up on one, as a human being, wouldn’t you try to stop it? What happens to the human that intervenes? You get mauled.”

High Desert Humane Society director Cynthia Carr deals with strays on a regular basis at HDHS’s new facility near Globe Cemetery, but they do what they can with the limited human resources available.

“There have been times where there are loose dogs in the neighborhood and it immediately is a concern for us,” she says.

“It’s our animals and our volunteers at risk, because we don’t know if they’re friendly, where they belong, or if they’ve been vaccinated. It’s not safe for the animal and it’s not safe for the public.”

She added that she tries to maintain a good relationship with the County, which has significantly more resources than her all-volunteer organization, and HDHS even shares donations with the County shelter.

The overarching issue is the sheer number of unwanted animals that are not being cared for or properly controlled.

Carr says there is a statewide crisis of animal overpopulation, and loose dogs combined with overstressed animal shelters are contributing to a building crisis.

“We have these strays and all day, every day we’re getting calls about accidental litters owners don’t know what to do with,” she says. “At any given time, we’re averaging 50-plus dogs between the fosters, the shelter, and the intake.”

HDHS has also participated in a spayneuter program that dealt with more than 700 animals last year from Bylas, San Carlos, Thatcher and the Globe-Miami area, and included dogs belonging to homeless people and strays.

Anyone having problems with stray animals should call 911 if it is an emergency, Gila County Animal Control at 928-425-5882 or GPD dispatch at 928-425-5751. u