Animal Control where you Live?

[Konotashi]

Another thread inspired by another thread. lol

I was curious - how is the AC where you live?
Out here, they're usually on top of things, take things seriously, etc. etc.

However, when we were in Arkansas (Harrison), my sister's neighbor owned 2 bloodhounds. One that was starving, and the other who was running loose, starving, and had a very swollen hip. I learned that she got hit by a car and the owners didn't do anything about it.
I called AC to have them come out and look at the dogs. What they said? "Bloodhounds are naturally skinny." Skinny and emaciated are two different things entirely!
Then a few days later, I saw the loose bloodhound again. She came up to me so I was petting the top of her head. She smelled something awful - not like dirty dog, but something rotten. So I looked around on her, and she had a huge, infected gash in her throat. I asked my sister if she knew what it was, and she told me that her owners tried to slit her throat, but she got away!
I called AC again, but they didn't come out until the next day. Unfortunately, later that night, her neighbor came over, PROUD, exclaiming he had "finally shot that **** dog." I guess he tried to bite one of his kids. (Can't say I blame her - broken, untreated hip and infected wound in her neck!)
AC came out, and since they couldn't find the body, they couldn't do anything.
The only good that came of any of this, was the dog's suffering ending.
Unfortunately, the other dog was still there. I learned that later (about six months ago), they tied her out to a tree and let her starve to death....

At first, when this was going on, I was furious that my sister wouldn't call anyone. Then I was furious due to the lack of caring or concern by the AC officers.

[Dainerra]

hey, I'm just 45 mins from Harrison. Sad that AC over there is like that
Of course, ours isn't any better. We have the county Animal Control which only handles stray dogs. As in, if I call to complain about a dog wandering they won't pick it up if it has a collar or looks "fed" because it might not be a stray.
Then we have the Humane Society, which takes owner turn-ins, but not strays. They went no-kill last year and now have a 3 month waiting list. In emergencies, they will take a lost dog off your hands if they have a spot.

All other calls go to the Sheriff. Their usual advice is to shoot the dog if it is acting aggressive towards people or livestock. AR doesn't have a state leash law and most of the rural areas don't have one either. So there isn't really much that can be done.

[Mayasmom]

A/C is horrible in my county. It really needs to be turned over to a private company. Im sick of hearing "we are under-funded & don't have the resources".

As I mentioned in the other thread, my son was bitten by a dog that lives in my neighborhood. I asked the owner immediately after the incident if his dog was current on vaccinations & who was his vet. I called & they had not seen the dog in years. The owner had also disclosed to me that the dog has bitten people before.

It was impossible getting a hold of a/c, I even called the Sherrif's office who forwarded me back to a\c's answering system. I left messages, my neighbor friend & my husband left messages. This happened at 1pm in the afternoon!

I never got a call from them. I took my son to dr. for treatment.

The next day I immediately called a/c & got answering system, at 10am. I left another mesg.

I called again at 10:30 & finally a human answered. She told me I was next on her list to return calls, yeah right. Then she tries telling me I dont live in an area under their jurisdiction!

It was so incredibly obvious they were so not willing to do anything. I explained my fear the dog could have rabies & the need for the animal to b quaratined. She told me they would have to decapitate the dog in order to make that determination & if thats what I wanted them to do. I didnt eant anything bad to happen to the dog I just wanted it to b observed in a facility surrounded by people that would recognize symptoms of rabies.

This drug out for 4 days, I even reported it to the health dept.

In the end, they allowed this irrespnsible dog owner to do an in-home quarantine b/c they werr worried the dog would get sick. They put the dogs life above my sons.

they also refused to deem the dog dangerous or viscious b/c they couldnt verify these previous bitings, they werent reported in my county. Plus they said the dog was provoked because we were walkinging on the sidewalk passing the house.

Also, the owner wasnt given a citation for the dog not being current on rabies. Come to find out it is not required in my county! The owner, knowing full well his dog bites should have at least kept the dog up to date on vaccinations.

[onyx'girl]

The AC's in my area(five counties) are pretty good, though there are several rescues to support them.
They are kill shelters.
If they get calls/complaints they follow through.

I've pulled dogs from three of them and the workers are compassionate(communication is lacking however).

Three of them are affiliated with the County Sheriff depts, and open to the public. One had a really bad reputation but has built a new facility and is doing better. They were not rescue friendly and "fired" a couple volunteers who called them out on their care that they weren't providing. I think it is up to volunteers to help and in my area the more who help out, the better the AC can do their job.
The one in my county has a volunteer posting dogs on a facebook page to get more exposure to the animals in the shelter. It helps.
Just before the holidays, I saw a dog a friend posted, posted him on my wall and one of my friends ended up fostering him til she can rehome him. I was lucky to be able to pull/transport him to boarding and meet the wiggly happy guy!
He was saved because of fb!

[Zisso]

AC is lacking here also. If there is a stray, even one that is starving and freezing, it takes last place, last priority. Many years ago, I had a female shepherd mix and she & I were attacked by the neighbors Rottie and Pit Bull. The attack was extreme. AC was called and came out, took the Rottie as we had caught it, and only due to my repeated calls did they follow up after they let the guy have the dog back. It had gotten to the point that I could not take my trash to the curb without the dog growling at me from the dark shadows, and I was terrified. During that attack, I lost the tip of my index finger, when the Rottie snapped it off, and she almost killed my dog.

Just last Sunday, as I walked my dogs at the local park I saw a stray that had mange, overgrown nails so bad it hurt to walk, that was shivering with cold. The Park Employees had tried several times to catch the dog to no avail. I took my dogs home, unloaded my crates and went back with dog food. The dog was an Aussie-he came right to me, took the food gently, held his worst foot up in pain. I had a friend come, we got a leash on him and took him to a vet in our area that takes strays. They in turn called AC who didn't pick the dog up for 2 days. He is now at the Humane Society and listed. My friend and I are going to go see him today. I know he is at least warm and getting fed, and pray his nails have been trimmed and his mange is being treated. I will be angry as you know what if those two simple things are not being done for him.

[Gwenhwyfair]

That's a very bad experience I'm sorry you and your son had to suffer through that....but....

Rabies vaccinations are state regulated, not by the county. Every state requires vaccinations, though some regs vary. I had foster dog (Jack Russell) that bit a child after he was adopted. We decided to euthanize him as this was now a confirmed problem. Even though he was vaccinated and we had proof of same he had to be quarantined for a week, in this case at my home.

Also, it depends on where you live but yes, many county shelters are underfunded and understaffed, especially in this economy. Some of them are horribly run on top of that. There simply is very little reward, monetarily, from running a shelter housing unwanted and discarded dogs, most of which end up being PTS.

Originally Posted by Mayasmom

A/C is horrible in my county. It really needs to be turned over to a private company. Im sick of hearing "we are under-funded & don't have the resources".

As I mentioned in the other thread, my son was bitten by a dog that lives in my neighborhood. I asked the owner immediately after the incident if his dog was current on vaccinations & who was his vet. I called & they had not seen the dog in years. The owner had also disclosed to me that the dog has bitten people before.

It was impossible getting a hold of a/c, I even called the Sherrif's office who forwarded me back to a\c's answering system. I left messages, my neighbor friend & my husband left messages. This happened at 1pm in the afternoon!

I never got a call from them. I took my son to dr. for treatment.

The next day I immediately called a/c & got answering system, at 10am. I left another mesg.

I called again at 10:30 & finally a human answered. She told me I was next on her list to return calls, yeah right. Then she tries telling me I dont live in an area under their jurisdiction!

It was so incredibly obvious they were so not willing to do anything. I explained my fear the dog could have rabies & the need for the animal to b quaratined. She told me they would have to decapitate the dog in order to make that determination & if thats what I wanted them to do. I didnt eant anything bad to happen to the dog I just wanted it to b observed in a facility surrounded by people that would recognize symptoms of rabies.

This drug out for 4 days, I even reported it to the health dept.

In the end, they allowed this irrespnsible dog owner to do an in-home quarantine b/c they werr worried the dog would get sick. They put the dogs life above my sons.

they also refused to deem the dog dangerous or viscious b/c they couldnt verify these previous bitings, they werent reported in my county. Plus they said the dog was provoked because we were walkinging on the sidewalk passing the house.

Also, the owner wasnt given a citation for the dog not being current on rabies. Come to find out it is not required in my county! The owner, knowing full well his dog bites should have at least kept the dog up to date on vaccinations.

[CookieTN]

I've only dealt with them once or twice. Well, I saw them several times when I was volunteering at the animal shelter, but that alone doesn't tell me how "on top of things" they were.
Once Treader got loose and AC caught him and took him to the animal shelter, then they called us and let us know we had to go bail him out.
And another time when he got loose someone called AC on us because Treader was harassing their dogs through the fence, and we got a warning that if the neighbors complained again there'd be a fine.

So based on that, they seem to do well.

(Treader is an escape artist. We try to crate him when we're going to be going places and take precautions, but he's very good about waiting for a slip-up and taking advantage of it.)

[Gwenhwyfair]

Our county AC used to be horrible, just horrible. The shelter was terrible and the AC officers not helpful.

A couple of years ago a new director took over and things have improved greatly from horrible to managing as best they can.

In dog on human attacks the local LEOs often get involved and ACOs back them up.

In dog on dog/cat/livestock attacks it's a different story. A friend of mine was in her garage with her husband and their cat. The neighbor's dog got loose from it's pen, trotted right into her garage, saw the cat, grabbed it and killed it right there in front of she and her husband. Her husband tried to beat the dog to get it to let go of the cat but the cat was dead and the dog took off with the cat in it's mouth. They called AC immediately. The ACO showed up about 1/2 hour later and said that there wasn't much he could do as the dog was now on it's owners property. Even though there was blood in the garage and two eyewitnesses.

The ACO filled out some paperwork and that was all that could be done legally. That's why in the other thread I said reporting animal on animal agression usually doesn't amount to much.

Strays are pretty low on their list too.

I think that they have to prioritize. There are so many people who are irresponsible, or sometimes it is pure bad luck and a dog gets away from a good owner, strays, unwanted dogs roaming that it's really difficult to keep up with it all. The bad economy has made it worse too.

Naturally where you live matters as well, density of population, urban or rural.

Back in the day, growing up way out in farm country we didn't call AC if a stray dog was causing problems. It was the three S's, Shoot, Shovel and Shut up. If you loved your dog you made sure he/she didn't hassle the neighbor's chickens, cows, goats.....or cats....

Saved the AC guys a lot of work......

Ultimately the best answer would be for people to be more responsible when it comes to pet ownership. Then we wouldn't need AC as much...but I don't see that paradigm changing anytime soon.....

[Dainerra]

here, there is only one legal recourse for animal on animal aggression - shoot the dog. Call the police, call the Humane Society, call AC, they all give the same advice

[ladyfreckles]

AC is fairly good around there. The only problem I notice is that some situations have to get disastrously out of hand before something is done about it (for example: that AKC judge who was hoarding dogs in her basement). Frequently though animals are rescued.