As consultants drove through the streets of southern Dallas this summer to document the city’s increasing population of loose dogs, they found some residents walking with sticks in hand, in case they had to fend one off.

Residents of the southern parts of the city, home to some of Dallas’s poorest neighborhoods, have complained for decades about roaming dogs, whether stray or left free to wander by owners.

On Thursday, the Boston Consulting Group, hired by the city, released a report that estimated there were 8,700 loose dogs in the area, representing the first time officials had tried to quantify the problem.

“It’s not that it’s 24/7, that there’s constantly dogs out and people can’t even leave their house,” Peter Brodsky, the chairman of the Dallas Animal Advisory Committee, said in an interview. “But it is a prevalent enough problem that it is really impeding people’s quality of life, such that there’s diminished walking down the street. Sometimes you can’t go into a park.”