On Sunday, July 21, 2019, during the hottest weekend of the year with the temperature in the 100s, at approximately 4:00 pm, we took it upon ourselves to check on Ivy, the dog, only to find her dying, with flies around her, with green discharge in her eyes while gasping for air. We quickly attempted to cool her down by hosing her down while calling 911 and animal control. After talking with neighbors, they said that the owner hadn’t been seen in about 3 days. The officers took Ivy to an animal hospital. Shortly afterward, one of the neighbors contacted the owner who said that she was in Virginia and hired someone to care for her dog while she was away when a neighbor said that he saw her son at the home that morning. This was an obvious case of animal cruelty. Ivy was already very old and sick and was left outside in 100-degree weather to die.

With no legal action against Ivy’s owner, the least we can do is provide our animal control department with enough resources and demand additional working hours on Sundays, which was a day when we needed them for this incident. This could have allowed Ivy to receive the necessary attention she deserved as she was gasping for air.

We want to make sure that incidents like this one don't happen again. Bowie has a population of over 50,000 residents and is the 5th biggest city in Maryland. There is an insufficient amount of animal control officers for the size and population of Bowie, so there has been a major increase in the number of animal control cases. Many residents have pets, so we are challenging the Office of Boards, Commission for Animal Control and Bowie City Council by demanding that Bowie Animal Control has more than two officers to allow more appearances in our city when we need them.  

We are also demanding more hours as they close as early as 4:30 pm and are completely closed on Sundays. Bowie Animal Control also needs an officer to provide community outreach on educating the public, prosecutors, and police to protect our animals from being neglected and abused.

Only with your support can we make Bowie a safer city for pets, wildlife, and people. Please sign our petition to challenge the Bowie City Council!