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Confession

The last blog hit a nerve with me. The mention of picking up road-kill skunks reminded me of the most evil thing that I ever did. It is confession time.

I was called to a location where a guy was using leg-hold traps in his yard. He was trying to catch his neighbor’s cats and caught a skunk instead. I was so angry that the guy was using leg-hold traps on any animal. I decided to school the guy. I might have gone too far. Way too far.

I planned to tranquilize the skunk and remove it outside our city. Every time I tapped the skunk it would attempt to spray me. I was much faster in those days. It wasn’t until I returned to the neighborhood a few months later that I realized that one tap would have been overkill, but why did I have to tap it six times? The only good that came out of that is that the guy never set that trap again.

Every time I smell the odor of skunk, I feel guilty. I have to live with that.  If you are ever driving through Pullman Washington and smell skunk, I am so, so , sorry.

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Animal Disposal

One of the chief concerns in the animal welfare business is the disposal of dead animals. There is quite a business opportunity in disposing of the dead. But before I get on with this blog, let me provide a grave warning in dealing with skunks.

Animal control is often tasked with scraping up road kill and disposing of the bodies. Skunks are unique in that they can make you the most hated person in the community by bringing a dead skunk into your shelter for disposal. Always carry a shovel in your vehicle and bury the skunk on the roadside. Please don’t attempt to put the skunk in your vehicle or remove it from its current location. Let’s face it, the roadway will stink for months. Burying the animal will not distract from its current level of stink. Just bury it. You might think twice about bringing the shovel back with you. Your vehicle is your office. Do you want it to stink of skunk for three or four months? Bury it along the roadside. This might be the best advice I have ever given to anyone!

In Portland, we had a full-time officer driving around and picking up dead animals. We had a sweet deal with local veterinarians in which we would dispose of their animals. In return, the veterinarians agree to treat any animal that an animal control officer brought to them. It was a great deal because we did not have a veterinarian on staff at the shelter.

There are four methods of disposing of dead animals:

Incineration. This is a costly way to burn animals. It might be the most respectable manner to deal with disposal. Having an incinerator is problematic if your shelter is in a neighborhood. Even though the best incinerators have secondary burners to burn the smoke coming from an animal, it is a foul smell. I can recall seeing someone from the local Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sitting in front of our animal shelter in Milwaukee watching the smoke come out of our smoke stack. Incinerators can be a problem.

Landfill. It used to be pretty common to take dead animals to the local landfill; but, as time has gone by, fewer and fewer landfills will accept animals.

Rendering. Some companies pick up animals to be rendered into cosmetics. It isn’t commonly available, and it is personally frightening that I might be kissing my wife who is wearing lipstick of an animal that I once killed.

Burial. Some humane societies have cemeteries in which people can bury their pets. Given the volume of animals that animal shelters were once killing made burial cost prohibited.

 

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Wolf-Hybrid Dogs

I have to take issue with a headline in today’s news: “Feral Wolf-Hybrid Dogs.” The article is about public health officials conducting a welfare check on an old woman who found that she was living with 40 feral wolf-hybrid dogs. The dogs were seized and euthanized. My issue is pondering whether a wild species being bred into a domestic species can legitimately be identified as feral. A feral animal starts domestic and is turned out by its owner to become wild. A wolf-hybrid is not a feral animal because it was genetically born wild.

Walk back with me a few years… say maybe 30 years when there was a fad of owning wolf-hybrid dogs. Public health officials announced that no tests can be performed to determine if the rabies vaccination administered to dogs would be effective on wolf-hybrids. Even vaccinated for rabies, wolf-hybrid dogs would have to be treated as an unvaccinated animal. The problem with unvaccinated animals biting a human is that the animal would have to be tested for rabies following the incident.

Rabies testing of animals is very hard on the tested animal. It requires that the brain is removed so that tissue can be observed to be infected. In all of the years that I have worked in animal control, I have yet to see an animal that we could put back together. Although, many of the biting animals that we tested actually became better pets after the test.

It was interesting to note that following the public health announcement, the next round of licensing applications saw much fewer dogs being identified as wolf-hybrids. Those who had dogs that were obviously wolf-hybrids were surrendered to individuals who created wolf-hybrid sanctuaries. I was never surprised by reports of these sanctuary owners being eaten by their dogs under their care. You breed in wild, you get wild.

As a species, we never grew smart enough to understand that genetics plays a major role in the behavior of the dogs that we turn into pets. It is that ignorance that becomes job security for those of us who work in Animal Control.

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Dog Bite Prevention

6,000 Letter Carriers are bitten by dogs each year.  Why?  Because dogs feel like they are invincible against the Carriers.  Every day a Carrier comes to their door to deliver mail, the dog barks at the Carrier, and the Carrier leaves.  In the dog’s mind, the dog believes that his (or her) barking has frightened away an intruder.  Day after day, the dog is further convinced of being invincible and their aggression increases with each return of that intruder who is taunting the dog.  In the dog’s mind, that intruder is begging to be bitten.

Receiving mail is an important part of our everyday lives.  Dog owners who want to continue receiving their mail should take a critical look at their dog’s behavior to determine if their dog presents a risk to their Letter Carrier.

As an animal control professional, I saw that when the USPS stopped mail delivery it was the most effective way to control loose dogs in a neighborhood.  In recent years, Letter Carriers have been encouraged to sue dog owners when they are bitten.  Lawsuits are an effective way to educate people.

The best prevention is to separate the dog from the carrier.  It’s pretty darn simple.  Lawsuits are simply an effective way to end stupidity.

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Veterinary Colleges

In this morning’s new paper, I read that one of our colleges is opening a veterinary school. I thought to myself, “What a wonderful opportunity for the local animal shelter.”

I started my career in animal welfare in Pullman Washington. I could not have picked a better place to start. I was living in Idaho and earning my Wildlife Resources degree when I took the job in Pullman. The City of Pullman used to pull their Animal Control Officers from the students attending the Veterinary College at Washington State University. My background as a military working dog handler gave me a boost into the position.

The Veterinary College and I developed a close working relationship. They needed my help in dealing with abandoned pets and assisting them in making the difficult decision of euthanizing an animal. I got a lot in return.

The College had a problem with people delivering their pets to them for treatment and then abandoning their pets when they got their bill for services. I accepted those animals. Frequently, strays were brought to them that required extensive treatment. Without an owner present, I would aid the College’s veterinarians in deciding to save the animal or euthanize it. In this manner, I helped relieve them of the liability in making that decision.

In return, they would provide the training that I required. I worked with their Head of Ornithology to learn how to capture and handle birds of prey. They taught me how to use chemicals in the capture of animals. My experience was so great, that in the first years that the National Animal Control Association began offering an annual training conference, they did so in Pullman so that they could teach nationally the things that I was learning locally.

Throughout my career, I had the opportunity to work with colleges. In Fairfax County, I worked with a college that trained veterinary technicians and they incorporated much of their study time with hands-on training at the shelter. In Alachua County, I worked with Florida State University where veterinary students would provide hands-on training once a week at the shelter. It is a natural fit for veterinary students to work at their local shelter. A wise shelter director will aid them in seeing that fit.

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Failed Programs

Throughout my career, I wanted to put my name on a couple of innovative programs. I have listed below a few disappointments in the process.

As a new fledgling in Pullman Washington, I wanted to praise people for being responsible pet owners. Back in those days, you could actually find them. So I started ACO looking for RPOs. The acronyms didn’t catch on. I had to keep explaining that it said “Animal Control Officer looking for Responsible Pet Owners.” Again, that didn’t catch on. While on patrol, I would stop a person walking with their pet to check for the obvious: a license tag, a poop pickup baggy, and the general good health of the animal. If they met those requirements, I had a bag of goodies, even a signed certificate from the Mayor. I think most people didn’t like being loaded down with those goodies while walking their dogs. Oh well.

My most disappointing project was helping battered women in Salt Lake County. In the program, I worked with the local police, the community services program, and the women’s shelter. The idea was that many women wouldn’t leave an abusive situation because the option of leaving the situation forced leaving a pet behind. So, we would take in the woman’s pet while she sought a new life. The first woman had two dogs. Once her dogs were secure in the animal shelter, she then went into a women’s shelter. After a few days, we couldn’t reach her. Her friends later claimed that “she climbed into the cab of the first truck driver that came through town.” She had dumped her dogs on us. In the following months that we worked the program, we had only helped one woman. What was left was all of the abandoned pets that were left behind in the shelter. In many cases, I think the pet would have been better off being left with the woman’s partner. I am afraid that many women take the pet away from their partner just to be mean. This program had all of the makings of being a wonderful program and to this day, I am still upset over how it played out.

One of the biggest problems we face in picking up stray animals is the large number of pets who roam the streets without identification. Twice, working with the National Animal Control Association, I was given a grant to buy an ID engaging machine for use in Milwaukee Wisconsin, and again in Roanoke Virginia. The idea was to ensure that every pet leaving the animal shelter was wearing a new collar and identification tag. This program proved that the only ones interested in seeing pets with identification were the shelter staff. Over and over again we witness the same pets being picked up without ID, returned to their owner with new identification, and picked up again with no ID. It felt like the pet owners were going out of their way to keep identification off their pets. This was such an eye-opening experience for me that anytime I had a chance to facilitate an ordinance change, I would make it mandatory for any pet that came to the shelter three or more times without wearing identification to be microchipped.

Probably the biggest failure that we experienced was dealing with an ordinance in Portland Oregon that required anyone selling puppies to be required to have a “selling permit.” The notion was to identify the folks who were filling up our shelter with the puppies that they couldn’t sell so that we could encourage them to spay/neuter their breeding animals. The newspapers were “supposed” to include the pet permit number in the new paper ad. None of the newspapers complied because they felt that we were overstepping our authority. The ordinance did little to stop the overcrowding in our shelter. Let’s face it, people will breed their pets to get a few dollars for a couple of puppies in the litter and then abandon the rest of the litter; they would continue to do this year after year after year. The worst part is that when the animals are dumped on us, the owners act like they are doing us a favor. In the animal welfare business, you have to suffer more than your share of idiots.

Another major failure was offering a deferred payment plan so that people could bail their pets out of the shelter without having to pay the full amount of the impoundment fees. We kept seeing incidents of people walking away from their pets when faced with the cost of paying a fee to get their pets out. I thought that allowing a 60-day deferment would offer up an opportunity to get the dog home (let’s face it, people mostly don’t come looking for their lost cat) and offer them some time to make payments.

It turns out that once the pet is back home, lost are the thoughts of ever making good on the payment plan. I only remember a few (I mean I can count on two fingers) the number of people who honored their agreement. Collections companies claimed that there was too little incentive for them to go after the owners because pet owners were the most stubborn people they ever had to deal with.

Keep in mind that the recidivism rate for these dog owners is high. So little time goes by that the dog is once again in the shelter. Of course, the idea of offering a deferment plan goes out the window and the owner is now faced with past and present fees. You are once again giving the owner a chance to abandon their pet at the shelter. I have to admit that some owners angered me so much that I wanted to charge them with animal abandonment for walking away from their pets.

In case it just dawned on you that you were missing a tool in your toolbox, there is a problem with charging people for animal abandonment when dumping their pets on you. The major provision of animal abandonment is to abandon an animal without any provision of providing adequate care. Hey, animal shelters provide “adequate care.” Unless you have a specific ordinance of dumping an “owned animal” at the animal shelter, my earlier suggestion of charging the owner is BS. But that doesn’t prevent you from writing the ticket and seeing if it changes the mind of the owner. In my mind, there should be a law, but animals are considered property and a person can disown their property at any time.

The only place in which the deferment plan had any hope of working was in Virginia where I worked with county tax collectors to treat pets as property. People paying their property bills would see an added charge for the deferred payment. I know what you are thinking, “So what do you do with renters?” Good question, in Virginia, they also tax your vehicle as property. So the renters are covered (if they own an automobile) as well. I know, it is a mean way to deal with the issue, but it kept people honest. But now, looking back, I see that integrity is a concept that belongs only to a few people that I have encountered.

Running an animal shelter has its share of disappointments, but that doesn’t mean that you should give up. Your job is to care for every animal that comes into your shelter, even if that means that you have to deal with their owners. The animal side of the business is very rewarding. The people side of the business rewards you with war stories that you can later share with your friends.

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Equipping your Field Staff

Some of the best training films for Animal Control Officers have been provided by Hollywood. Nothing sets the scene better for preparing for an on-scene arrival than watching Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds; or the 1998 reboot of the movie Godzilla. Let’s not forget the entire Jurassic Park series. Nothing gives me goosebumps better than watching a couple of animal control trucks arriving on the scene BEFORE the Army has been called out.

The success of a “mission” is best determined by the equipment that is available for each officer. The maintenance of animal control equipment is of paramount importance. My first ride along with my field staff showed me the need for me to bring my own equipment. Nothing puts fear in you better than confronting a vicious dog with a catchpole that hasn’t been properly maintained. I still carry my own catchpoles wherever I go because I refuse to ever use the equipment maintained by anyone else.

Every time you debrief from a call, you should consider the items that you could use to have made the call easier. From these debriefs you come up with ideas for the equipment that you one day might need. I remember formulating the idea for an inflatable beach ball that could be pulled through draining pipes to help round up stray kittens that have fallen into the drainage systems. I created a 50-foot catchpole with an infrared camera to lift dogs that had fallen down wells or deep holes. The funny thing about creating these devices, you find that you’ll rarely ever use them, but when you do, nothing else works.

Something as simple as having a head-mounted flashlight helps at night when both of your hands are needed to handle the catchpole. Depending on your budget, which is often the most limiting factor, net guns, tranquilizer guns, and snake tongs are always helpful when the need arises. Always go in with the right equipment and ensure you know beforehand how to use it. Always think things through; it doesn’t do any good to have snake equipment if you don’t have the proper container to put the snake in after you catch it.

Also, keep in mind the laws of physics. If you ever use one of those nice long extension catchpoles to remove a cat from a tree; you’ll soon learn how you lose the advantage of leverage with the weight of a cat on the end of a long pole. At best, you can hope for a controlled crash when bringing the cat down to earth. Don’t let your heroic efforts harm the animal you are saving. Always conduct your business as if it might become viral on YouTube because there is a good chance it will. Keep in mind that using a catchpole doesn’t always look humane on video because its primary intent is to keep the person on the other end of the pole safe. But it is sure a lot better than trying to wrestle a dog on the end of a leash.

I know that some of you are saying that you have not been in the business as long as this guy and won’t encounter a Velociraptor in your lifetime. At this point, my eyes glass over as I contemplate my old war stores. There is nothing like rehashing the old stories, whether they are real or imagined.

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Wildlife Relocation

One of the strategies that we use with nuisance wildlife is to relocate the species to another area.  This strategy is problematic when disease is spread from one population to another—specifically, distemper in raccoons.

Distemper cycles through raccoon populations every seven years.  It is nature’s way of population control.  When you introduce an animal on a different cycle, you disrupt the natural cycle of that population thus triggering an additional cycle and causing an over-correction of the population.

Responding to a wildlife nuisance complaint can trigger increased deaths in the wildlife population if you do not consider the consequences of your actions.

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The Deadliest Animal in Each State

I came across an article, The Deadliest Animal in Each State by Michelle Ranken that I found interesting.  Twelve States report insects as the deadliest, eight States report dogs as the deadliest.  I’ll let you read the article to go down the list.

So, according to Ms. Ranken, if you live in Alabama, Arizona, Michigan,  New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Virginia, dogs are the biggest danger that you will face.  So, if you are out looking for a new job, these States probably need as many Animal Control Officers as they can get.

If you are a business person in any of these States, there could be money in selling pepper spray.

 

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Deep in the Trenches

In previous posts, I mentioned the risks involved in working in the field of animal welfare. Those risks included getting fired. I have been fired. Multiple times. I hold them as trophies for doing the right thing or for just being pigheaded. You decide.

I was the animal control officer for a neighboring town while completing my degree. With a diploma in hand, I began my job hunt.

Lane County, Oregon: I was hired as the Field Supervisor. The job required that I work 11 or 12-hour days and then handle all of the emergency calls at night. It is amazing how quickly a new job can wear you down. Animal Control fell under the Finance Director. You can imagine that the only interest he had was numbers. And so it was. He placed a citation quota on all of the animal control officers and only those who met his quota of 40 citations a month would see promotions or offered the new trucks or equipment. I was opposed to this. I think we should use more than one tool in dealing with pet owners. My boss disagreed. I lasted three months. I remember the sense of joy that overwhelmed me when I realized that I didn’t have to go back to working there.

Lesson learned: sometimes it is better to be fired when you are not smart enough to leave.

In my next job, I was hired as the Chief Field Supervisor serving Portland Oregon and the gal who hired me claimed that having been fired from Lane County was a very big mark in my favor in getting the job.

Jacksonville Florida: Jacksonville Florida was in the middle of major layoffs. Animal Control was under the Environmental Services Department. We shared that Department with Sanitation Services. The Sanitation folks were undergoing the greatest number of layoffs, so our boss decided to lay off the entire administrative staff of Animal Services to make room for his buddies in Sanitation. If it is any consolation, the Sanitation folks discovered they were unprepared for working in Animal Control and I got to watch my old organization tank in the media. Working in the South forces you to face the dynamics of the “Good-Ole-Boy” system. Although located in Florida, Jacksonville is the southern end of the old South. Coming from the North, sometimes the old South is a hard pill to swallow when you believe that the laws should be distributed evenly for everyone.

Lesson learned: You’re either a good old boy or you are not. Stay away from working in the South. And as I once was told, “maintain a firm grip on your Northern ethics.”

Milwaukee Wisconsin: At some point in my career I wanted to take on a challenge. I had spent years enjoying our adoption successes in Gainesville Florida and wanted to turn a high-kill shelter around. Milwaukee claimed that they wanted to experience an evolution in their policies and wanted to become more progressive. I started bringing in rescues and volunteers into the shelter only to have been met with resistance by a couple of employees. One of the employees had worked there for 30 years and he fought every effort to improve the place. Clearly, I could not get around this obstacle and found myself unemployed. Again!

Lesson learned: Sometimes your ego prevents you from seeing a bad situation. Don’t be fooled by organizations that claim to want to evolve when they are impaired by immovable forces within their organization.

Roanoke Virginia: I call this “out of the pan and into the fire”. One of the local private animal shelters in Roanoke was trying to get me fired before I set foot in the county. I remember an early meeting that this group called to discuss the animal shelter; when I arrived they would not let me attend the meeting. I think the only time I was ever invited to their shelter was when they wanted to lynch me. In the previous post, I talked about turning this shelter around from having a 10% live release rate to over 90%. We were adopting out all of our adoptable animals, but that wasn’t enough for our volunteers. They were demanding that we release dangerous dogs out for adoption. Not on my watch! The people that I worked for were all peacemakers; I had to go. Let them deal with damage control. I came to meet some of the nastiest people working in the animal rescue field here. But, despite their behavior towards humans, they made up for it, in their efforts towards animals. Even dangerous animals.

Lesson learned: I am old-school animal control; where I believe my primary obligation is to protect the community that I serve. There is no place for us old guys because the profession is evolving in which the animals come before the community. I’d rather be fired than have to work in a place that considers placing potentially dangerous animals out for adoption. Didn’t I warn myself about working in the South?

So there you have it. The whole purpose of my blog is to prepare people who want to get into the animal welfare profession. It isn’t all about playing with kittens all day. But, those kittens come in handy on a stressful day.

I enjoyed my career and I count my terminations as trophies. I have to live with myself and I feel like I did my part in keeping each community that I worked for safe. And to think that I studied Wildlife Resources in College so that I could man a fire watch tower and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Either way, in both professions I would have had to deal with ticks.