By LeaAnne Klentzman

In a quiet, rural neighborhood located near the center of a triangle between Pleak Village, Needville and Beasley, Jolie Zulkowski and her family were drinking their morning coffee when a skunk was spotted wandering in their pasture. Immediately they were concerned as they have encountered rabid skunks before. Now, for the Zulkowski’s, it wasn’t their first rodeo. When they had discovered a skunk on their property in the past, according to Zulkowski, no one wanted to help them, but their phone rang off the wall when the test results were positive for rabies.

So the Zulkowski’s knew the drill. They called Fort Bend Animal Control. Since it was after hours and on a weekend, Animal Control was not available. The phones rang instead to the Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s dispatchers suggested she call Texas Parks and Wildlife and gave her the number. When she called the Houston district office, they explained there were no Game Wardens available as it was opening day of deer season.

Finally a call came from Fort Bend Animal Control, but the representative was short and not accommodating. She was told to put the skunk out for trash pick up. Thoroughly disgusted, Ms . Zulkowski loaded the terminated skunk, which was packaged for disposal, into the back of her truck and headed off for Sheriff Milton Wright’s house.

You see, just weeks prior at a function in Needville, Sheriff Wright told Ms. Zulkowski that new protocols were in place to deal with rabid or suspected rabid animals after her last incident. So, she paid him a personal visit with her aromatic package to let him know....the new protocols were not working out so well.

While she was standing on the Sheriff’s front porch, the sheriff called his people to have Animal Control have their people contact him. No return call came so...Ms. Zulkowski left with her aromatic package headed to her Commissioner’s residence.

Lucky for him, Animal Control called Ms. Zulkowski while en route. After much argument, an Animal Control representative was dispatched to meet her and take the skunk for testing.

That representative, Aaron, showed up at the designated meeting place in a County Animal Control truck, took the putrid box from the back of Zulkowski’s truck, threw it into the back of his truck and split. No information was exchanged. However during her conversation with the director of Animal Control Vernon Abschneider, she had already provided her name, address, phone number and all other pertinent information. But concerned at Aaron attitude and demeanor, Ms. Zulkowski followed him to make sure the skunk was preserved properly so it could be tested.

Mission Statement as listed for Fort Bend Animal Control:

The mission of animal control is to eradicate the spread of rabies among the county’s animals, prevent rabies in the human population, and control wild, potentially dangerous animals in areas of high population density.

Her concerns were heightened when the Animal Control truck wandered through the streets of Rosenberg then pulled into the Bowie Elementary school parking lot on Bamore Road in Rosenberg, not the Animal Control facility on Blume Road.

It appeared that Aaron, the county representative, was trying to ditch Ms. Zulkowski. She made a turn and then again fell in behind the county truck which this time wandered thru the streets of Rosenberg traveling back east. Across Ave I to Highway 36, then onto the 59 northbound to 99 north and into the New Territory subdivision, he was able to give her the slip at a red light. However, she picked up his trail in the neighborhood when she discovered his truck in the back of a cul de sac behind a huge RV. As she turned to ask him what was going on, she was stopped by a pair of sheriff’s deputies.

During the traffic stop at the intersection of Adobe and Edenbrook near Homeward Way, Deputy R Castillo told her he knew what was going on. “I loosely suggest you not follow that vehicle,” he said. When she asked why the Sheriff’s department could not help her earlier in the day, but now could send two cars to tell her what she could not do, he said this is an Animal Control issue.

“You cannot follow him because he does not know who you are and why you are following him,” the deputy said, even though the Animal Control officer had earlier taken the skunk from the truck that now he was “scared” of. When she asked what she had done wrong, Castillo told her she had not committed a violation but she could not follow the truck and scare the driver.

While her measures may seem extreme, Ms. Zulkowski may have more concern for public safety from rabid animals than public safety from those the taxpayers pay.

Commissioner Richard Morrison said on Monday he thought that this kind of problem had been resolved after an incident earlier this year when a west Fort Bend resident was bitten by a rabid skunk, and it took over 12 hours for Animal Control to respond. He assured Ms. Zulkowski her issues would be followed up on.

Inquires were made as to response and protocol for potential rabid animals with the City of Sugar Land Animal Control, Harris County, and Brazoria County. All were forthcoming with information and explained their guidelines were to respond promptly, keep the animal preserved property for testing. Testing is done on the brainstem of the animal, and it must remain in a cool environment so it does not deteriorate.

At press time calls to Vernon Abschneider, director of animal control, had not been returned.

Which begs the question, if a citizen has to jump through all these hoops to report a rabid animal, just who is getting skunked?

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