So many animals have been dumped in one area of North Harris County that officials have dubbed it the "Corridor of Cruelty."

The vacant tract of land is easily accessible from the Eastex Freeway, but mostly hidden from sight.

For years, it has served as a dumping ground of a most deplorable sort where the voiceless victims of unspeakable cruelty could be disposed of unnoticed. Or so some people apparently thought.

"It hurts. You feel it right here in your heart, whenever you see these animals, because they didn't even have a chance," said Kevin Phillips who manages a nearby business. "They've been raised in harsh conditions and then just done away with in such an inappropriate way."

Some of them were simply unwanted, others were used up in dog fighting.

"You'd see dogs with eyes gouged out, their throats ripped open and so forth," said Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos.

For years, there's been some debate as to who's responsible for policing the area. One section is in the Houston city limits, but just a few feet away is Harris County's turf.

HPD has recently stepped up surveillance of the area and the Harris County DA's office is joining forces with Crime Stoppers and animal welfare groups to launch a new ad campaign against dog fighting and other types of animal abuse.

"Anybody who makes a report that results in the arrest of a felon for dog fighting -- or any other felony -- will be eligible for up to a $5,000 reward," said Katherine Cabaniss with Crime Stoppers.  Contact Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

Update 1/27/09:  Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos has beefed up animal cruelty enforcement in her office, announcing the creation of a unit that will target dog fighters and those who treat pets inhumanely.

She appointed Assistant District Attorney Belinda Smith as the animal cruelty section's chief. Another prosecutor will assist her, along with an investigator who will help build cases for them.

The unit began its work when Lykos and Smith announced that it would try to learn the identities of dogfight owners who have been dumping carcasses - losers in the matches on which spectators often bet - in a wooded area in northeast Houston.

Earlier this month, Smith and others from the animal cruelty section found about six carcasses in bags in woods west of the Eastex Freeway behind a Sak N Save, Lykos said. Pet owners have also been known to abandon unwanted dogs there.

"They dump injured dogs and dead dogs," Lykos said. "This will no longer be a cemetery for dead dogs."

Under former District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal regime only one prosecutor - Smith - was assigned to animal cases.

Increasing staff personnel and creating the new unit shows that Lykos is "committed to prosecuting these cases," Smith said.

Dogfighting and gambling on fights, she said, has been increasing in recent years. In November, she headed an investigation which led to the indictments of more than 60 people accused of taking part in a sophisticated, lucrative dogfighting ring.

These cases can be difficult to build because dogfighting is a secretive subculture. Known hot spots for dogfighting in Houston include Channelview, the Acres Homes area and the Cuney Homes area, authorities said.

Crime Stoppers of Houston announced that it would try to help the district attorney's office build cases.

"Those in dogfighting are scary people," said Crime Stoppers director Katherine Cabaniss. "People are afraid of retaliation in their neighborhoods. They are fearful of these dogs."

Authorities will rely on camera surveillance and increased patrols by the city's animal control officers to curb dumping in the woods near the Eastex Freeway, Smith said. Animal control officers will round up abandoned dogs.

The dumping ground is a 150-acre tract west of the Eastex Freeway, bordered in some areas by Halls Bayou and Langley Road.

The Harris County Flood Control District bought and razed homes in the tract after they were swamped during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. The district intends to build a retention pond on the land to help curb flooding.

It removed most streets in the tract, added ditches in places and put up a gate at the one remaining street in part to curb illegal dumping, said flood control district spokeswoman Heather Saucier.

Completion of the retention ditch is still years away - the district hasn't appropriated money for its design.

Law-abiding residents stay out of the tract because they hear gunfire and fear those that they see going in, said Kevin Phillips, manager of Interstate Collision and Service Center on Langley.

"I've heard them back there in the day, I've heard them at night," Phillips said. "I've gone back there (in the day) and found animals in trash bags. I think it's horrible, the dumping they have going on - the trash and the animals."

Smith said she and other officials found about six dead dogs when they walked the property earlier this month.

The tract hasn't been well-policed because of a jurisdictional dispute between the city and the county, Smith acknowledged. The city controls land south of Langley Road. North of Langley is unincorporated Harris County, and the county is responsible for patrolling it and rounding up wandering animals.

When a dog would cross from the south side of Langley to the north, city officers would feel that they no longer could pick it up, Smith said.  "Their attitude was it's ‘you're problem, not my problem,' "she said.

As part of its campaign, Crime Stoppers will putting up 30 billboards advising people that they can provide anonymous tips about dogfighting .

Update 2/1/09:  The Houston mobile clinic will become an agent of change on February 23, 2009, for the animals of an infamous Houston dumping ground thanks to a $10,000 grant by the Glasgow Foundation. A large number of animals have been abandoned on a north Houston tract of land along the Eastex Freeway near Little York, leading many to refer to the stretch as the Corridor of Cruelty.

“The Corridor of Cruelty is one of the saddest locations in Houston,” said Susan Lamb, community program manager of SNAP’s mobile clinic. “Abused and neglected animals dominate the landscape, and more seem to arrive daily,” she concluded.

The SNAP mobile clinic will make four visits to the area over the coming months in cooperation with Paws Animal Rescue, Inc., of Alvin, Texas (pawsrescue.org). Paws will capture the animals, and SNAP veterinarians will then spay or neuter them and vaccinate them against rabies. The funder has built in limited wellness treatments for the rescued animals. Once the animals have been sterilized and vaccinated, Paws will place them with foster homes that have agreed to help them find permanent homes.

According to an investigation by KHOU-TV news, many of the animals are former fighting dogs that were abandoned when they became too old or too badly injured to be of use to those who conduct the illegal activity. Many of these dogs carry crippling wounds as a result. Other animals were left to fend for themselves simply because they were unwanted by their guardians. Most of these animals are not sterilized; thus they reproduce without restraint. This further compounds the problem by increasing the number of animals competing for available food and water.

Reference:

KHOU

SNAP