Fort Worth
Fort Worth’s dumping ground for dogs lies between Interstate 35 and two lines of railroad tracks, tucked behind thick woods and piles of trash in a city park.
Judy Obregon is leading the charge to save the animals at and around Echo Lake Park, just south of East Berry Street. Almost every day, she drives the same route, supplied with toys, blankets and dog food. She sifts through the garbage, looking for signs of life.
Sometimes she wields a machete to clear the tangle of weeds and brush, where dog owners have abandoned their pets or discarded the remains of those that have died.
Obregon grew up in the neighborhood, and she estimates she has rescued more than 400 dogs at the park and the surrounding area over the past nine years. She documents each rescue on the Facebook page for her rescue organization, The Abandoned Ones.
Most of the time, the dogs she saves are emaciated — malnourished, weak and ribs far too prominent underneath their skin. She often finds them near trash on their search for food.
“Majority of them walk up to me … it’s almost like they were waiting for the people that dumped them,” she said.
A couple of her rescue videos went viral in 2017, grabbing the attention of People magazine, ABC News and Inside Edition, along with 50 other websites. Later that year, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals gave her its Citizen Hero Award.
City and county officials say they have seen no evidence that the park’s reputation as a dog dumping ground is accurate. Animal Care and Control has picked up 14 deceased animals in the area in the past year and 12 strays in the past five years.
“I’m willing to work with anybody, any authority that’s willing to help change, and I’ve never really had an issue with any authority,” Obregon said.
However, Obregon’s Facebook page features at least 268 photo albums, one for each dog she has rescued. This doesn’t include the dogs she rescued before using Facebook or her documentation that wasn’t used in a photo album.
“It’s up to the people to believe what they want to believe,” she said. “My mission is to rescue them and show the reality of what I’m rescuing.”
Signs of abuse
The odor of a rotting corpse leads Obregon to the dead dogs before she can see them, even though some have been double bagged to mask the smell. She has seen dogs that have been shot and hog-tied, puppies that have been poisoned.
Emily Walker, a hospital administrator at VET Care Hospital in Fort Worth, finds the park to be uncomfortable, eerie and unwelcoming.
In her trips there, she has found animals that appear to have been used as bait dogs for fighting. (She and others identify them by bite marks, filed-down teeth or razor cuts on their legs.) Walker recalled a search when she found nine dead dogs in an hour.
Her clinic partners with Obregon’s rescue organization to treat the dogs rescued from the park. Obregon has brought in 74 animals from the park in the last three years, Walker said.
“Before I met Judy, I’ve never seen stuff like this before,” Walker said.
Natalie Allgeier, who has rescued animals for 27 years and has fostered for The Abandoned Ones, has joined Obregon for searches at the park.
She wants to see animal cruelty laws enforced because the park is “smack in the middle of the city.”
“Dog abuse needs to be criminalized, not just a fine and one day of jail,” Allgeier said.
Animals on the loose
Alice Vanderzyl has lived with her husband just outside the park for 10 years. She loves the area but says the one drawback is Echo Lake, which was owned by Tarrant County up until two years ago. Since then, the city has torn down the group shelter, picnic tables and restrooms because they weren’t up to code.
“For some reason people dump their animals there,” Vanderzyl said.
Her four dogs were rescued from Echo Lake Park.
Because of Obregon’s outreach, Vanderzyl said that the community is well aware of the dumping. Sometimes residents will alert Obregon if they see an abandoned dog in the area.
“You just can’t have so many animals loose and running around,” Vanderzyl said. “But when they’re out there, Judy’s on the job.”
Vanderzyl was one of the few in the neighborhood willing to speak publicly about the problem.
“I just think a lot of people are not willing to speak up about a place that they live in,” Obregon said.
Obregon praised the Fort Worth Police Department in its efforts to help her. Anytime she comes across an animal that shows evidence of cruelty, she provides the officers with as much evidence as possible.
A Fort Worth Police Department spokesman said he was unaware of dumping at the park. When told about an officer who works with Obregon there, he said he would relay a message to her. It was not immediately returned.
City councilwoman Ann Zadeh, who represents the district where Echo Lake Park is located, has not heard any complaints about dumping at the park.
“The dumping of dogs has not been brought to my attention,” Zadeh said.
She said she hopes people would find a more humane alternative to dealing with dogs they don’t want.
Obregon suggests more lighting and blocking roads that don’t serve a purpose. But her main objective is educating people on the importance of spaying or neutering their pets.
“Do I think there’s a huge stray problem at Echo Lake? No. I think we have a huge dumping problem. But I think it’s more of a people problem than an animal problem.”