Animal Control serves the citizens and animals within the city limits of Balcones Heights and is committed to providing animal control by enforcement of our City Animal Ordinances and State Law; as well as provide care for the animals which are brought into a city Animal Shelter. For Animal Control please call: 210.957.3185.
It is our hope that Animal Control can educate our community to gain a better understanding about animal control, the services we provide, and the responsibilities and obligations that are part of being a responsible pet owner. Pet owners should become familiar with Chapter 90 Animal Control of the Code of Ordinance and comply with requirements listed in this chapter. We highlighted a few of those requirements.
Section 90.020 Dog and Cat Microchipping Required. We want to reunite you with your pet should he/she become loose. Each dog and cat must be microchipped and should wear an identification tag attached to a properly fitted collar.
Section 90.035 Restraints. All dogs and other animals, except for those cats in a feral cat colony or registered, domestic free-roaming cats, shall be kept under restraint and shall not be allowed to run at large.
Section 90.040 Care of and Cruelty to Animals. Animal cruelty is a law violation punishable by fine and/or jail time in accordance with the Texas Penal Code. It shall be unlawful for an owner or caregiver of an animal to neglect an animal and fail to provide that animal with humane care and treatment. It shall be the duty of the owner or keeper of each, and every dog or cat kept in the city to have such dog or cat vaccinated against rabies by a licensed veterinarian by the time the animal is four months of age. No owner or caregiver shall allow the accumulation of animal waste on any premises in a quantity sufficient to create an odor offensive to a person of normal sensibilities standing on adjacent property not owned by the subject animal’s owner or caregiver, or which creates a condition conducive to the breeding of flies or other pests.
Impoundment. Unlicensed dogs and cats, other domestic animals and livestock shall be impounded and kept for not more than 72 hours after which time they become the property of the city. Licensed impounded animals shall be kept for not more than 120 hours. Any animal not reclaimed by its owner within 120 hours shall become the property of the city and shall become available for adoption in a suitable home or humanely euthanized.
Leash Law and Removal of Pet Excrement. An animal owner or keeper shall not walk an animal without a leash restraint or without otherwise having such animal under control, and shall not guide or take animals onto the yards or driveways of property not owned, leased or occupied by the animal owner for the purpose of allowing the animal to defecate, but shall keep the animal in the public right-of-way, and shall carry a container with implement for the sanitary removal of the animal's fecal matter from the public sidewalk and public right-of-way adjacent to any property with a structure or other improvements thereon.
Limiting the number of domestic animals. It shall be a violation of this chapter for any person to possess, own, or otherwise keep within the city more than four animals of the same species in any developed residentially zoned section or to keep more than six animals of the same species, excluding livestock, in an area zoned agricultural/residential which exceeds one-half acre except in cases of newly born or hatched litters or clutches under the age of three months old.
Trap-Neuter-Return program. To control the feral cat populations effectively and humanely within its jurisdictional boundaries, the city shall support a trap, neuter, and return program to reduce the feral and free-roaming cat population over time without necessity of capture and euthanasia. The city may provide services to off-set the costs of trapping, neutering, and vaccinating captured free-roaming cats that can be returned to an appropriate, controlled, protected, and authorized colony site. Left ear tipping shall be used on these cats to be identified as spayed or neutered and a vaccinated member of a managed colony. A photographic record adequate to identify the cat shall be obtained for all cats. This is part of the city trap, neuter and return program and maintained by the registered caregiver. Registered caregivers shall attend one of the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition workshops and they can be contacted at sanantonioferalcats.org.
