Today’s Great Falls Tribune front page ran two stories that play right into my hands! Just what I needed to compare and contrast humane societies with animal control units. One story is about the GF Humane Society falling short of their animal control contract with the city and the other is about the Sweetgrass port of entry officers who ended up with five unwanted snakes. The photo with the humane society story shows a nice lady in an apron (a mom) giving a kitty some medicine. The story about the border crossing showed the biggest and scariest snake, a five foot python.
I don’t think it was accidental that the two stories were published side-by-side or that the sharply rebuking story was illustrated with a kindly image while the “humane” story (the callousness of keeping snakes for pets and then abandoning them when they are inconvenient) had a menacing illustration. (Well, if you like snakes, it wasn’t menacing -- but for most people...) The Tribune seems to have a policy of publishing a “positive” story every time they publish a “negative” story -- at least that’s the way they address Native Americans. I have no doubt that they get a lot of flak otherwise or even in spite of the strategy.
Two conflicting but very common alternative practices have confused animal control functions. One is that historically when a sheriff was assigned the duty of stray dogs, he [sic] conventionally sighed and picked out his least effective deputy -- maybe someone old or fat or a beginner or a screw-up -- and just assigned all that "trivial" stuff to the one unfortunate guy. After all, there are two things you can do wrong if you’re a “dog catcher.” One is catching a dog and the other is NOT catching a dog. Both make someone angry.
The other practice is making a contract with the local humane society to assume animal control duties. After all, humane societies are nonprofit, usually relatively powerless in terms of making political trouble, well-meaning, and already maintaining a kennel. And the local humane societies usually need the money. But they have no training in law enforcement, much less experience with animals beyond dogs and cats. Things can go badly wrong.
A case related in the snake story was in Kalispell a month or so ago when a boy unexpectedly met a five-foot alligator. (Must I point out that ‘gators are not native to the Flathead Valley?) For lack of an efficient protocol and response, the locals shot the ‘gator with an arrow, tied its snout shut with fish line, and ineffectively cut its throat. “Federal officials” ended up shooting the beast. What would you do? The reporter doesn’t say who’s in charge of scary wandering reptiles, except that the five big snakes (airplane ride, anyone?) were sent to a rescue mission in Zortman, essentially a humane society.
Law enforcement is Dad -- humane societies are Mom. So they have drifted into being in our gender-preoccupied society. One is official and one is volunteer. If a volunteer tries to do law-enforcement, they become either a joke or a menace -- at the very least a confusion. Just like today’s gender issues.
So Father Great Falls (which incidentally has a female mayor, Dona Stebbins) called the humane society on the carpet, or as the headline writer had it, “rode herd” on them. (Headline writers can’t resist animal metaphors, jokes and puns.) They just weren’t rising to the “level of service” the city expects. The city expects 74 hours per week of “patrolling” while HS people had only been patrolling 61. No description of “patrolling” which -- in my opinion -- is one of the most ineffective methods of creating change. The numbers suggest one or two officers wandering around in a rather sizeable city. Thirteen hours more -- a day and a half?
The president of the society (James Donahue, a man) said he “does not believe the society will have any trouble meeting the city’s demands.” He thinks that complaints “just come with the territory.” The city has given the humane society sixty days to shape up. The society’s board is down from nine members to five. One member actually “cursed!” Good grief! Last year the deficit was $2,500 and this year it’s $30,000. The interim president, Christian Cornelius, had eliminated paid membership. The city has not been receiving financial reports. The HS said they didn’t think they were required. Donahue admits, “We don’t pay very well because we don’t have much income.”
Police Captain Dave Bowen says all animal complaint forms should be countersigned by the supervisor. The City Manager John Lawton says he has gotten complaints about both officers and attendants being understaffed and untrained. Police Chief Corky Grove says if the HS doesn’t shape up, they will “start proceedings to cancel the contract.” (I’ll bet his fingers are crossed that he won’t inherit the job.)
The National Animal Control Association is exactly the right organization to address this mess. They have a website, they have people who know how to work with police and train AC officers in their methods, they work with humane societies, esp. the ones who have contracts to enforce animal laws or provide kennel support, and they’ve been down this trail over and over. But no one knows they exist.
The big national humane societies -- the ASPCA, the HSUS, the AHA, and so on -- make a lot of noise and get a lot of publicity, even if it’s pretty silly (which undermines the efforts of animal control). The NACA members are busy trying to get their work done. But the NACA members would like to have some of the friendly feeling that accrues to humane societies, so they hesitate to separate themselves very much. Everyone loves Mom. Not so sure about Dad when he’s a disciplinarian.
This situation repeats itself all over the country. But there is no need for it. Education is the answer and education exists. It’s just a matter of some Googling and phone calls.
Another continuing story in the GF Tribune is a phone directory that left out a lot of important numbers. There is a small alternative “community directory” with all the government listings that were left out of the main one. The reporter says approvingly, “The dogcatcher’s listing also is just that, dogcatcher and pound.” Sigh.
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