Webb County confirms seventeen fields marked ‘Unknown’ on a complaint that, by all accounts, is not unknown at all

As of Tuesday morning, a Webb County Animal Control supervisor has confirmed that a formal complaint filed by a Laredo-area resident regarding livestock losses on her property was processed and accepted with seventeen of its fields checked ‘Unknown.’ The supervisor, reached by phone, described this as ‘within normal variance for an unusual incident.’ I wrote that down. I read it back to him. He confirmed it was what he meant.

The complainant, Rosa Villanueva of the 4700 block of Ejido Road, reported finding three goats and one Muscovy duck dead over the course of four days, each with puncture wounds consistent with the pattern associated with chupacabra activity in the region — small entry points at the neck and upper shoulder, minimal external blood relative to the apparent degree of internal trauma. Villanueva, who has raised livestock on the property for nineteen years, said she has never lost animals this way before. She said she knew what she was looking at. She filed the form because she was told to file the form.

Community Notice

I left ‘Unknown’ blank at first. The woman on the phone said I had to check something. ‘Unknown’ was the closest box. I want that on record — I didn’t choose it. It was the closest box.

— Rosa Villanueva, complainant, Ejido Road, Laredo

The Form in Question

Webb County Animal Control Form AC-7, used for nuisance animal complaints, contains fields for species, approximate weight, fur or scale coverage, number of legs, known aggression triggers, and owner or handler information. It was designed, according to a county administrative document dated 2004, to accommodate domestic animals, feral domestic animals, and ‘large regional wildlife including but not limited to coyote, javelina, and feral hog.’ It was not designed for the chupacabra. This is not, in itself, surprising. What is worth noting is that the form has not been updated since 2004 and that the county received fourteen complaints in the past eight years that required, by the supervisor’s own estimate, ‘a significant amount of creative interpretation’ to process. He used the phrase ‘creative interpretation.’ I also wrote that down.

Twenty-one witnesses are associated with this incident. Villanueva’s immediate neighbors on both sides reported hearing sounds they variously described as ‘a high hiss,’ ‘something between a screech and silence,’ and, from one neighbor who asked not to be named, ‘the sound a dog would make if a dog understood something was very wrong.’ Webb County Animal Control has not dispatched an investigator to the property. The supervisor indicated this is because the form, as submitted, does not generate an automatic dispatch order when species is listed as Unknown. The system requires a species. The system was given Unknown. The system is waiting.

The form is a tool. Tools have limits. This is a situation that is outside the limits of the tool. That doesn’t mean the situation isn’t happening.

— Webb County Animal Control Supervisor, name withheld by request

Villanueva has since moved her remaining animals — eleven goats and two ducks — into a secondary enclosure closer to the house. She has left the exterior lights on every night this week. She told me the lights don’t make her feel safer, exactly, but they make her feel like she’s doing something, and right now doing something is better than waiting for Webb County’s system to receive a species it can work with. I asked her what she wanted to happen next. She said she wanted someone to come out and look at her property. She said she was not asking for much. She is correct. She is not asking for much.

WTC has submitted a records request to Webb County for all Animal Control complaints processed with more than ten fields marked Unknown in the past ten years. We have been informed the request will be handled in the order received. The radio on my desk has been running about two and a half tones higher than its baseline for the past six hours. I have not been able to correlate that yet. I am keeping notes.