Animal Control Officer - A Day In The Life

it's 7 30 am officer michael o'neill with ingham county animal control is just arriving to the shelter to report for duty the shelter is still quiet as the majority of the staff have not yet had a report for work but officer o'neill serving a community of approximately 300 000 citizens and responding to over 2 000 calls annually is already preparing for the shift that lay ahead officer o'neil a three-year veteran with the department straps his body armor on to begin the day which sets us a reminder of the often thought of but rarely spoken dangers of his profession as he walks down the still dark hallway to his office more reminders are displayed of the mental and physical demands of the job including remembering those who have previously given their lives in the line of duty as animal control officers with the sun barely yet rising officer o'neill is already gearing up for the next eight hours not knowing what his shift may have in store for him but he is prepared and ready to respond to any type of call if an animal or citizen is in need adam charles 6. the clear the shelter i'm officer o'neill with ingham county animal control i've been a animal control officer with ingham county for almost three years now prior to being in animal control i was active duty in the air force as security forces essentially a military police officer which really gave me the the experience needed to do this job in dealing with dealing with the public and dealing with people on a daily basis the thing i like most about being a animal control officer would be educating the educating the public that's 90 of our job is just educating the public and giving them the the tools needed to care for their animals correctly one of the worst parts about the job would be when we're having to seize animals for welfare and neglect adam charles sex will be out at pacific pride getting fuel you show me clear uh pacific pride and i'll be in route to greater lansing veterinary clinic right now we're on our way to greater lansing veterinary care to check out an injured cat we were called by them that they had received an injured cat with a head injury and typically as animal control we don't pick up stray cats but being that it needs further vet care and it is a stray the veterinary clinic has asked us to pick up the cat to transport back to our shelter so that it can be cared for by our veterinary staff so when did the the cat come in is there anything important for us to pass on to i don't think so really he hasn't been on no i don't think so we've just been giving him some medications here but i don't think he's going with anything so now that we've picked up the cat from greater lansing vet clinic i'm just inputting the information into the computer and creating a animal id that way we can we have a running identification of of the animal that we're bringing in um also they had stated there that they had scanned it for a microchip which is great um but we'll double check that when we when we get it back to the shelter to do an intake we'll also have it examined by our vet to see what kind of specialty care it needs so i first looked into being an animal control officer and i thought of whatever what most people think of as a as a dog catcher every disney movie has the dog catcher being the villain there's just so many misconceptions surrounding animal control that the public needs to understand that that our main job isn't to go out and catch people's dogs that i it's actually the opposite of that that we're trying to reunite the dogs with the owners and when we are picking them up we're just trying to keep them safe some of the other misconceptions uh euthanasia being one most people think that at the shelter we get full we euthanize animals and and that's that's hardly the case obviously there's the cases where an animal is badly injured to the point where it's suffering and it needs to be humanely euthanized the other reason will be for aggression if the dog is really really aggressive then it's not going to be able to be adopted out or rehomed then we may have to euthanize in that case as well we just arrived back to the shelter with the injured cat we're going to get it inside conduct an intake on it scan it for a microchip and have our animal care staff and veterinary staff take a look at it it is from greater lansing veterinary center it was found on the road uh with some with some trauma around some steroids and some other pain meds and right now we're on our way out to investigate a complaint regarding some cows uh in a lean-to structure uh the complainant says that the cows are in feces up to their chest we have been out to this address several other times and the cows have been healthy every time that they've that we've went out they've had everything they need as far as food and water and their condition being what kind of cows they are they're dairy cows for some people they may look like they're skinny they're actually adolescent dairy cows so they're they're gonna have prominent hip bones showing in their in their back end which is completely normal for for this type of cows so we're just gonna go out make sure nothing's changed make sure the cows are still healthy and that they have everything they need and that they're not in in feces up to their chest as we stated before the the call was about the the cows being in feces up to their chest you can see under the the lean tube portion there is a large pile of feces however if the cows go in there that's their choice they do have the ability to escape that and they all look very healthy so aside from the the animal control dog catcher mantra that we have i mean obviously yes we do we do have times where we have to go pick up we pick up animals and chase dogs that are that are running loose for their safety but there's also many other things that we do from animal cruelty investigations investigating neglect and abandonment we do search warrants on houses for unsanitary conditions we have to testify in court for everything from misdemeanors to felonies related to animal abuse or severe neglect right now we're rushing out to a call that we just got in about a pit bull that's running loose they know where the pit bull lives but apparently the owner is not home yet and it is acting aggressively it it lunged at the complainant so for the safety of the community and the safety of the dog we're gonna get out there as as quick as we can try to locate the dog and either get it back into its into its yard or home if possible and if not then we'll have to impound the dog okay what and nobody's nobody's home right now okay hello oh animal control my dog's all right yep dog's friendly yeah okay i know apparently the gate was open and the dog was running loose that's wrong oh no no there's another dog look just like her okay down at the corner i see him this morning yes okay she's oh no no she's definitely that she was running loose and then she just ran ran into the into the gate no way the gate was open no no no no it was open it was just not open when i let rock going potty okay she made she may have hold here when i came up the gate was like the gate was like actually this one was open so i i went to close that just to keep her in there and then i hurt you so okay yes i'm just gonna double check make sure um i not know her license is good i'll just double check actually i can go get it for you well that's fine i can look it up right in the trunk all right we're the ex like the princess warrior all right perfect thank you very much i appreciate it come on come on xena come on you don't want to go down here man that's like you're sleeping all right just checked with the what the animal owner it sounds like the the gate to the backyard was open the dog may have gotten loose we don't have a lot of history of the dog getting loose here so just gave him a verbal warning make sure that he keeps his dog in the yard and under his control per the county ordinance he set his dogs up to up to date on licensing and i i believe that's correct from the last time i came out but i'm just going to double check real quick he does have a current license dogs up to date uh closing the gate keeping the dog in the backyard will be we'll be good to go and close this out we got very lucky with that last call everything worked out very well in the sense that the dog wasn't aggressive it was a friendly dog the owner was home he was able to close the gate to confine the dog and in some situations it doesn't end up like that when you arrive at a house all you know is there's a possible aggressive dog with an open gate yes the dog could be in the backyard but as soon as you walk up and the gates open the dog could charge you uh being protective of its of its own property and the biggest danger of our job isn't always the the animals and them being aggressive a lot of times it's the animal owners we deal with all types of people on any given day could be dealing with violent violent people uh animal owners under the influence or in cases where we may have to take the animals the animals are are like their children so they're obviously not going to be willing just to give us their animals and that can be can be a very dangerous position that we place ourselves in when dealing with those types of people hopefully that gives an idea of what we do as animal control officers here at ingham county animal control each day is different some days at the at the end we're we're sad worn out other days we're happy and um you know with the outcomes of the day so we're back here at the shelter i'm gonna finish up some some paperwork and then go home for the day as officer o'neill's eight-hour shift comes to a close he and his fellow officers can rest easy knowing that they have made it through another shift safely while still ready and willing to put themselves in harm's way for the citizens and animals of ingham county while today was a good day for officer o'neill he remembers that his next cruelty case is only a phone call away and he along with his fellow officers remain ready to respond at a moment's notice if you would like to find out how you can further assist ingham county animal control and shelter by volunteering or donating visit us online at www.ac.ingham.org or call our office at 517-676-8370

Channel: Ingham County Animal Shelter

Views: 42,216

Keywords: animal control, animal control officer, animal control ride along, ride along, police ride along, Ingham county, Ingham County animal control, Ingham County animal shelter, animal shelter, animal control training, animal control day in the life, ACO, Lansing animal control, animal welfare, animal rescue, SPCA, ASPCA, humane society, peta, animal control funny, humane agent, animal protection

Id: WneYjqB5734

Length: 15min 11sec (911 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 17 2021