SAN ANTONIO – Neighbors say Bexar County is finally taking responsibility two weeks after an elderly woman was removed from her home after her skin was eaten away by fleas.
A Northwest Bexar County neighborhood begged county agencies for more than a year to help the woman.
RELATED STORY: 05/30/2012 Elderly woman’s nose eaten away by fleasThere’s now a plan to care for the several animals she kept on the property.
Now that the elderly homeowner is getting medical care, neighbors say the only resident is her dog.
"She never pet her animals,” neighbor Tom Towles says. “She never did anything except feed them, period. It was like the dog lived by itself."
The front and back doors are wide open, so the dog and several feral cats are roaming the feces-covered house.
Towles says he and several neighbors called Animal Care Services multiple times.
"They can't be left here in the wild,” he says. “The house is infested with fleas, so therefore you know the animals have to be infested."
ACS says it removed two dogs at the request of the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office on May 21. Since then, the hold-up has been a warrant to gain legal access to the property.
ACS officer Jeanne Martinez says the agency now has the warrant and a plan.
"We're working in cooperation with the neighbor and we're going to be taking the traps out to him,” she says. “He will be watching over the traps to make sure the animals are safe once they're caught."
“Then I’ll contact Animal Control whenever we get the dog trapped,” Towles says.
He says he’s relieved the county will help the animals and hopes agencies pay attention the next time neighbors say a homeowner needs help.
"The problem is there's more,” Towles says. “How many more?"
Neighbors say the elderly homeowner is still in the hospital. She's been moved to intensive care so they believe her condition is worse.
