The Liberty County Sheriff’s Livestock Division is one of the least recognized and lesser known divisions within the agency, unless you own or in some other way are involved in this world of caring for large animals within the county.
Sgt. James Hobson deals with this animal world daily and, although he supervises and manages this division as a one-man operation, he has amassed some impressive statistics from Oct. 1, 2017 through Oct. 1, 2018.
The total number of animals housed this year comes to 130 with the total number of days stored per day per head for the LCSO being 2,936 before the animals are taken to auction.
If no owner claims an animal after the state law requirement of retaining the animal for 18 days, they are taken to auction. Over the year, a total saved per day per head on storage amounts to a little over $44,000. In addition, the amount realized from the auctions totals out to be $ 11,168 for the past year.
This large animal division operates on a round-the-clock schedule and thus there are no real set hours for Hobson to respond to calls on a daily or nightly basis. He is always “on call” to respond when needed.
This routine has, over the past year, chalked up for the county a total of $48,290 in savings. These total savings do not include the amount of time saved by the LCSO dispatchers, deputies or Sgt. Hobson in finding an owner while on the scene of a call.
Hobson said this task would almost be impossible if it were not for the Contract Cowboys that assist him on an emergency basis. Although the Livestock Division has been under budget constraints for the past few years, the Contract Cowboys and their role in public service is of a tremendous benefit to the Sheriff’s Office and the general public as they bring years of knowledge and resources to this most difficult effort of rounding up and the safe keeping of large animals that so often break down the fences of owners and wander onto our many county roads.
As the human population of Liberty County increases, the large animal population is expected to increase as well with the coming years statistics expected to be even larger.
From the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office