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In the nation’s third-largest county, metropolitan doesn’t necessarily equate cosmopolitan.

11 News first met Animal Control Officer Paul Davis on a grim Thursday morning in a not so flattering part of East Harris County.

His first call of the day: two pit bulls that have gotten loose and are roaming the streets.

With kind, gentle words, he diffuses what could have been an explosive situation.

“They were chasing children going to the school bus,” he said.

And after the mandatory paperwork: “I’ll leave the information with the owner, and the information will tell them they have three days to pick up the dog,” Officer Davis said.

Three days is a very significant figure for certain breeds, and so begins another day in the life of Officer Davis.

“There’s so many things we’ve encountered in the 12 years I’ve been here,” he said.

Like the time he was called to retrieve a Chow Chow whose owner had passed away.

“When I got there, they couldn’t even have the ambulance pick up the man until I got the dog,” Officer Davis said. “It was in the garage trying to get into the house where the man was.”

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In 2005, animal control took in more than 15,000 dogs.

For every animal control issue, there’s a human element.

Meet Shirley Shaw. Neighbors have complained her dog Tinker is creating a traffic hazard by darting in between cars on a rural road.

She’s just spent the night in the emergency room with a sick grandchild, and her husband is disabled and bedridden.

“I just don’t have the time to be out here chasing this dog out there in the middle of the road,” Shaw said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

The dog was given to Shaw a year ago by her grandchildren.

“She was just a tiny little thing, so we kept her in the house and she got so big and rambunctious, we had to put her outside,” she said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

For nearly an hour, Officer Davis and Shaw try to coax the dog into submission with a treat, but to no avail.

“If it’s getting to where you can’t handle the dog, I would concentrate on maybe turning it in,” Officer Davis said. “Well, I think that’s maybe the best thing to do. It’s going to cause a wreck out here. The problem is, if it does cause a wreck you’re liable for it.” Shaw finally manages to get the dog under control, and Officer Davis issues her a warning. 

“Hopefully we got it temporarily resolved,” Officer Davis said. 

Minutes later the next case pops up: a chow pup abandoned on John Curry’s property.

“One of a bunch in many, many years,” Curry said. “We get at least one to three dogs a week dumped off here on the corner.”

Not even a mile away is another abandoned pup, this one a pit bull mix, left on the side of the road.

No matter how sweet its disposition, Officer Davis realizes if it isn’t claimed within three days:

“It will have to be euthanized,” he said. “That’s the tough part of the job. It’s real sweet.  That’s a baby.”

Harris County has nine full time animal control officers. In 2005 alone, those nine officers took in more than 15,000 dogs and nearly 10,000 cats.

That represents a 1.5 percent increase in the number of dogs taken in but a 30 percent increase in the number of pit bulls.

And high-profile cases, such as the fatal mauling of a young boy last November, aren’t doing much to help the breed’s cause.

“Are pit pulls inherently bad dogs?  I wouldn’t classify them as particularly bad,” Officer Davis said. “It depends on the owner and how they’re raised.”

In the world of animal control, it seems it always comes back to the human element.