What can your Animal Control Officer do for you?

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

I remember the days (and I don’t mean they were necessarily the good old days) when Animal Control Officers were called “dog catchers”.  They had a truck, picked up stray dogs, and did not try to help the dogs or reunite them with their families.  They instead took the animals to the “pound”, the owners may or may not have been informed, and if the dog was not timely picked up by the family, the dog was euthanized.   


An Evolving Role


Animal Control Officers’ roles have evolved quite a bit since that time and, in my opinion, for the better.  A “good” Animal Control Officer (ACO) will do much more for a municipality than just keep stray animals off the streets.  An ACO can be a community relations officer for the municipality, maybe even an educator, helping the community he or she serves understand their obligations as pet owners – vaccination requirements, pet and kennel licensing requirements, leash laws and the like.  ACOs can help identify community cat colonies, hoarding situations, and people in need of assistance for the spaying and neutering of their pets. 

Of course, ACOs are also enforcement officers, and their positions are often within the applicable police department. ACOs are not armed with guns, but they do have the ability to request subpoenas and warrants working the District Attorney’s office in their jurisdiction.   ACOs can accompany police officers on calls when animals are involved because ACOs are trained to deal with animals in stressful situations.  

Training in Maine and Beyond


In Maine, ACOs must go through a four-day training program (about 4 to 5 hours of training per day) and then are required to satisfy on-going continuing legal education requirements. With the support of their municipality, some ACOs will further their education by taking additional classes to enhance their value to the community. Although this observation is mostly anecdotal, it seems that there is a shortage of trained ACOs to fulfill the needs of Maine’s municipalities.  Positions are often part-time, with some ACOs being spread thin because of having to serve multiple municipalities.


In The Neighborhood


Given the current popularity of pets, my bet is that members in a community welcome a well-informed, friendly ACO, ready to assist with helping them understand their obligations as pet-guardians, but also looking to the ACO to be their eyes and ears for cases of neglect, cruelty, and when other enforcement actions are required.


Next up – a discussion of the help available to municipalities to address community cat colonies.