A short background
on animal control; there was animal control in England before there
was orphan care, matter of fact the orphanages were modeled after the
humane care of lost and abandoned animals in major cities in England.
The term 'dog catcher” is frowned upon by officers that care for
animals, and calling the few of us that care, murders or killers is a
contradiction because we are in essences the ones that care for the
animals when they are either abandoned or lost, regrettably we have
to put animals down because of age, overcrowding, disease or
aggression.
When a city reaches
a critical point, things like police, fire, and sewers comes to mind.
These are essential, part to prevent disease and damage to personal
and public property, but often over looked are the actual residents
of the town, human and animal alike. Dogs and cats have been a part
of humanity for about 100,000 and 2,000 years respectively. The
house/barn/alley cat was the last animal domesticated by mankind
around the time of the ancient Egyptians.
O course when you
take an animal into a place where you live we also bring with the
chance of zoonotic outbreaks. What are zoonotic outbreaks you ask?
That is where a virus or bacteria jumps from one species to another.
Some are simple and just annoying, like ringworm or scabies, others
are deadly like rabies. To help prevent this from spreading like wild
fire many years after the Black Plague people finally understood it
was the rats and mice covered with fleas that spread the virus, of
course this came to late for about 25 million people, that was ¼ of
the entire world's population at that time. With today's open
boarders and flights the whole world could face exposure in less than
72 hours; humanity would have little or no chance to survive a
virulent outbreak leaving less than 1% of 1% naturally immune to any
particular virus.
Now that I have you
attention you can understand the important role animal control plays
in everyday life. Horses without their coggins test can be 1200 pound
incubators for West Nile, and Chickengunya both horrible diseases in
humans often referred to as swamp fever in horses there is no cure
and the normal standard operating procure is to destroy the horse.
Rabies is one of the most horrible deaths I have ever seen (in film,
not in real life). For two of my jobs I was required to watch a film
when a human had been exposed to rabies and in the final stages were
filmed (in the 50's) so doctors could see the ravages of the virus,
it haunts me to this very day. Over 100,000 people a year die
worldwide from rabies mostly in Asia and Africa but make no mistake
rabies is alive and well in the United States with a rabid dog
confirmed at a dog park in Austin in February 2015. That is to close
for comfort in my book, that's why one of the cities first job is to
mandate all domestic animals (dogs, cats, ferrets) have a rabies
shot, followed by another in a years time that will be good for 3
years, then every three years following that till the animals demise.
A comprehensive spay
and neuter campaign is the next logical step that would include TNR
(trap neuter return) to reduce the feral cat population. Feral or
wild cats pose a possible vector to infect other normally healthy
animals and humans. Cats have the ability to pass a number of
illnesses to humans, cat scratch fever, toxoplasmosis, rabies and a
plethora of other not so deadly but uncomfortable things that we
rather not go into right now.
Of course
enforcement is the next step, animals should be required to have a
city tag to return them or contact the owners if their animal is
caught outside of their yard or has been injured, or lost. In my many
years of animal control the best form of identification is a
microchip, and it cannot be removed or lost like a collar. Many
people have the idea that a cat will hang itself with a collar on,
but they make break away collars for cats and if not, micro chipping
is the way to go. A small chip is embedded under the skin and it
sends a ID number and a phone number to the proper receiver, it is
not powered so it will last the lifetime of the animal. Even if an
animal is killed by a car strike, a micro chip can bring closure to
the pet's owner.
The state of Texas
requires its animal control officers to go through a course to become
certified, in a small town they normally send a member of the city
road crew to become certified in animal control and euthanasia.
Another option is to send a marshal or police officer. Of course this
is NOT something that can be put off; if you have an animal control
department it must be run correctly and by the laws set forth by the
State of Texas.
The actual running
of a shelter also falls under many hats, it must be humanely run and
follow all state set rules. Animals in the state of Texas are
considered property, so in essence if you pick up a dog and do not
allow the public to have a chance to recover said property you are
doing an unlawful search and seizer, violating not only local and
state laws but the very constitution of the United States. Kennel
cards must have a picture and a written description of the animal,
location it was caught, and gender is always helpful as well as a
guess on breed. Also a set time limit must be set for all animals,
the norm is 3 days without a collar, and 10 days with. Of course you
have to have either a website of some means to show the public you
have animals in your care, a weatherproof poster board with picture
of the animals help to avoid the problem of having someone at the
pound 24/7 But it must be updated and monitored daily with a contact
number for people to recover their animals. A scanner is required to
scan ALL animals to see if they are chipped, putting down an animal
before contacting its owner is destruction of private property and is
punishable by law.
The additional costs
of animal control are covered by licensing, fines, and impound fees.
The additional officer can also double as a code compliance office
adding to the cities beautification by other fines. Additionally
animal control trucks can either be purchased used from Austin or
grants and loans are available if you plan to run a no kill shelter.
This is just a short
for a reminder of things to come for me, the actual codes and
everything that are necessary for animal control would take me days
to tell you everything we have garnered over the years. Please fell
free to contact me at my e-mail address with any thing you may have
forgotten or may have discovered during your quest to become a modern
animal control with a heart.
Michael Suarez
Executive Director of Hope for Dogs
7703 Tennessee
Walker
Van Ormy, Texas
78073
email:
hopefordogsanimalrescue@gmail.com
