Another public dispute has emerged in Terrell County, this time involving the county animal shelter, a longtime volunteer organization and Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland.
Cleveland issued a lengthy public statement Thursday disputing what he described as misinformation surrounding the Friends of the Terrell County Shelter and the circumstances under which the group stopped working at the facility.
The episode adds another chapter to a series of public controversies in Terrell County, one of Texas’ least-populated counties, where a population measured in the hundreds has not prevented local government disputes from periodically attracting attention far beyond Sanderson.
Cleveland said he decided to address the matter after a resident told him the Friends organization had been “kicked out” of the shelter.
“This is not the first time I have heard this claim, and it is simply not an accurate account of what occurred,” Cleveland wrote.
Cleveland said that after taking office, he met with representatives of the Friends organization and discussed eventually increasing the sheriff’s office’s involvement in shelter operations. According to Cleveland, the organization initially welcomed the prospect of additional assistance.
The relationship deteriorated after Cleveland assigned a sheriff’s office employee to become more involved with the shelter, he said.
Cleveland alleged that a Friends representative treated the employee in a manner he considered “unnecessarily confrontational, disrespectful, and at times counterproductive.”
The sheriff did not identify the representative or detail the individual incidents underlying his characterization, saying he did not believe publicly cataloging every disagreement would be beneficial.
Cleveland said the sheriff’s office had already spent thousands of dollars improving the shelter and was willing to purchase supplies and make additional improvements. He cited an instance in which supplies purchased by the sheriff’s office were later returned without notice.
Cleveland said he eventually concluded that the working relationship had become unproductive and decided to end the arrangement with the Friends organization.
“It was not a personal decision,” Cleveland wrote. “It was a management decision, and as Sheriff, it was mine to make.”
Cleveland also acknowledged the Friends organization’s contributions to the shelter and thanked its members for the time and effort they had devoted to caring for animals over the years.
But the statement extended beyond an explanation of shelter management.
Cleveland criticized unnamed social media pages that he said present themselves as supporting Sanderson but are instead used to “stir controversy, spread rumors, or create division.”
He did not identify the pages or specify which statements prompted the criticism.
The public airing of such a dispute is notable for an elected law enforcement official. Sheriffs commonly use social media to announce policy, provide public safety information and respond to significant misinformation. It is less common for a sheriff to use an official public platform to describe interpersonal conflicts involving volunteers and criticize unnamed community social media pages.
The episode also fits Cleveland’s highly visible approach to an office in a county with only hundreds of residents.
Cleveland, a Republican and former U.S. Border Patrol agent, has developed a regional and national profile through congressional testimony, media appearances and public commentary on immigration and border security.
His tenure has also produced controversy.
Cleveland has been involved in disputes over access to public records concerning border-security spending, including disagreements over the cost and production of records requested under the Texas Public Information Act. Some of those disagreements moved beyond technical questions over records and became public exchanges involving criticism of those seeking information from his office.
At other times, Cleveland has drawn criticism from members of his own political party.
He has questioned the wisdom of continuing to spend billions of state dollars on border enforcement as migrant encounters declined and has opposed construction of a border wall through the Big Bend region.
Cleveland also drew attention after appearing with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico during a visit to Sanderson. Cleveland praised portions of Talarico’s border-security proposals while making clear that he was not endorsing the Democrat. The appearance nevertheless prompted criticism from some conservatives.
Those controversies have involved different issues and different constituencies, but they illustrate the unusually prominent public role Cleveland has assumed as sheriff of Terrell County.
The latest dispute also brings attention to a more substantive issue involving the shelter: how it is being funded.
Cleveland said the Terrell County Commissioners Court removed funding for the shelter last year and, as things currently stand, again plans not to provide dedicated shelter funding this year.
According to Cleveland, the sheriff’s office has continued to spend available funds on animal care and improvements despite the absence of a dedicated county shelter budget.
“We will continue working with the Commissioners Court in hopes of establishing appropriate funding for the shelter in the future,” Cleveland wrote.
Cleveland also addressed enforcement involving stray animals, saying deputies would use discretion and common sense. In some cases, he said, contacting the owner of a loose dog may be more appropriate than immediately issuing a citation.
“My own dogs have gotten loose before. It happens,” Cleveland wrote.
He concluded by saying he would not engage in a social media argument and invited residents with questions about shelter operations to speak with him directly.
The statement presents Cleveland’s account of the breakdown in the relationship. The Friends of the Terrell County Shelter’s response to the allegations was not included in Cleveland’s post.
For a county with a population measured only in the hundreds, Terrell County has repeatedly demonstrated that the scale of its public controversies is not necessarily proportional to the number of people who live there.
This time, what might ordinarily have remained an administrative disagreement over the operation of an animal shelter has become another very public Terrell County dispute.
