The employees of County Animal Control, especially the group from the mid to late 1980's which I truly feel was the "golden age"in the department, were more of a "family" than it became by the 2000's.
Yes there were your 'brothers' and 'sisters' you liked and the ones you didn't. But being a small organization as it was at that time definitely made for close friendships and more than a few "relationships". As the department grew and expanded through the 1990's the distance between staff grew too. There were and always will be friends, one or two or a few, but nothing like it was with shifts being friends and socializing even off duty and with the other shifts and clerical staff too. Later on friends in the field staff kept with the field staff, friends in the shelter staff with the shelter staff, friends in the clerical staff usually just worked and went home, just no longer one united department.
Except at the Christmas Party. Those went from most of the department get togethers for good food and entertainment, to the last few I went to and then heard about when I quit going to them were it seemed to become people going and watching people get stupid drunk and embarrassing not only themselves but the department too.
I think that the departmental comradeship peaked in 1984/85 when the program manager at the time united almost the entire department by being a total A#@ H*&%!!!
Just about everybody wanted him GONE! He was, maybe still is?, arrogant, condescending and seemed to almost enjoy publicly insulting the employees. Nowadays, in our more 'enlightened time', employees often, but not always!, have a recourse. Back then, he was a god! or so he kept acting and telling employees! "Pat" was the kind of guy that probably shouldn't have ever been promoted to any kind of leadership role. I think he got it by his resume and the at the time prevalent "boys club" mentality. His arrogance ultimately was his own undoing and while he was off on an extended vacation he was investigated for "misappropriations of County Funds", or so we were told. We never saw him again and the rumor then was he'd been given the choice of resigning and leaving quietly or being publicly charged. He left!
The person that was got the job after him wound up being the 'top dog' for the rest of my time there before leaving, and again a situation of go quietly or else, just a few months before we left. But that will be another story.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
5 years ago
In the last few weeks we've been going through our storage building and tossing out more stuff that has been in storage and unused since our move out of California in March 2006.
One of the items I came across was my last "call log" from my time at Animal Control. At left is a scanned copy of the page of calls, the addresses removed, that I did on Friday September 2, 2005. Exactly 5 years ago yesterday. I also was working on Saturday the 3rd but only had 5 calls for the day and Saturdays were still slow call wise.
Looking at the calls I see that I was working in the unincorporated San Bernardino County area of the High Desert, the Eastern Apple Valley and Lucerne Valley California at the time. The truck I drove that day started the day with 60, 158 miles on it. Of the 10 calls listed, and the P-2 means this was a second page of calls received, 6 were left overs and started my day when I started at 7:30 am. The one call not done of this group, by the lack of the line through it, was a call without enough information to complete it.
The other calls? Well, from left to right starting at the top call, in the dispatch computer program it was call 71-485 which was the day number and then the cumulative call number, 485. It was a "Stray-Running at Large and make contact with the Reporting Party" or as written S-R/RP on Bella Vista with a cross street of Central and although not indicated, this call was in the Apple Valley area.
Except for three of the calls all the calls were in the Apple Valley area, those two calls were in Lucerne Valley and one in Silver Lakes or Helendale.
There were two Bite calls, one with the animal owner one with the reporting party. A Stray Patrol call for a loose and usually hours or even days ago seen dog, then I ended that day with two Skunk calls one in the Spring Valley Lake community which often caught Skunks in traps. Then an over hour drive out to the community of Silver Lakes off the old Route 66 and on the way to Barstow for another Skunk in a trap. And finally the last call written was for a Snake in the yard back out in Apple Valley. My guess is with the snake call since I'd indicated an arrival of 16:10 or 4:10 pm and departure of 16:20 or 10 minutes later, that, as most often occurred, the snake was long gone before I got there. With nothing else written I apparently didn't have any of the constant overtime that night and was back home on time.
This doesn't look like many calls just looking on a sheet of paper, but working any of the "outlying areas" of the county usually meant hundreds of miles a day of driving. From the start of my day at my house to Lucerne Valley was right at an hour drive. From Lucerne Valley to Barstow another hour to get there and an hour back IF you don't have to impound anything at the Barstow shelter. Barstow shelter back to Wrightwood, as I would have to cover on Saturdays was almost two hours- one way! I think you can get the picture, a LOT of driving!
Now this wasn't the 'official' record of what was done in a day, that was on the form called a "D.A.R." or Daily Activity Report. Those were printed off by the literal thousands and gone through almost as quickly by the staff. Those were the pages that 'counted' and got turned in every month. Many people including me, used a pad or scratch paper and wrote or 'copied' all your calls on that and then transferred the calls completed to the DAR. I liked the spiral bound, college ruled, 70 or 100 sheet notebooks. Worked the best for me! I'd use all the sheets one way then flip it over and use them all on the other side back. Even in the photo you can see the print on the other page.
Oh well, interesting reading and remembering. All the way up to the last call I went out too in the department, Saturday February 12, 2006. At 13:35 that afternoon I was "On-Call" and given a 'call back' call to drive out to Trona California (go ahead- look all these places up on Google maps!) which is the Northern most city in San Bernardino County that you have to drive out of the county to get too. Seems that a person staying at the motel turned apartments there had not been seen for several days and he'd left his German Shepherd locked in his room, number 8. The manager had waited till the weekend (of course) to call and have it removed. I was on-call for my last time before going on leave use up all of my time to move and take our 'deferred retirement' and so got the call.
On the page for that one and only last call for that day, I got out to Trona at 17:15 and was there to 17:35. Then I drove back to the Barstow shelter to leave the dog and got there and was there from 19:15 to 19:35 to impound the dog. Then driving back to our house I was back home and "10-7" or end of duty at 20:45.
So that last call was 7 hours worked, hundreds of miles driven, to pick up one dog and take it to a animal shelter then drive home. Money wise it was double time for the call out and time and a half for those seven hours worked.
For many of the ACO's on-call could be quite a racket! For many of the penny pinching public it was quite a waste of their money! Unless of course THEY needed help!
Tad
Friday, July 23, 2010
Things that got stuck in pools
I remember what we did was kind of herd it to the shallow end where we could reach it as she was trying to do in the second photo and as you can see we caught it with both of our Control Sticks in the photo above. One stick got the "business end" pinning the rear legs and tail so it couldn't spray and the other around the front end and pull it out. Skunks usually can't spray if they can't lift their tail. Unfortunately for Mr or Ms skunk, in a residential area like this and because skunks were considered "high risk" rabies carriers, just after this photo was taken it was the end of the road for the skunk.
Over the years I fished many animals out of pools, both full of water and empty. I got a horse out of an empty pool in Rancho Cucamonga. It just couldn't figure out how to walk up to the shallow end and up the steps. It took quite a while to finally get it out, but we did. Went to one call to a vacant hose where the previous tenants had moved away with the back yard pool full of water. It took a dog to fall into the green pool, must have thought it was a small lawn, and be there in the summer for a few weeks before the neighbors couldn't stand the smell anymore and called the police who then called animal control after going out and finding a gross green cesspool with several dead animals in various states of liquid decomposition floating in it. And I got the call!!! It was really disgusting when an animal was 'falling apart' in the heat of summer or in water like a pool. I think you can get the idea without more graphic detail!
I also got many still alive animals out. I remember one call where both of these peoples Dobermans had fallen into their pool. The owners weren't home so the neighbors watching the house for them called when they got home and discovered them in the pool and I responded to that call too. The dogs were both in the shallow end standing on the steps into the pool, but couldn't climb out on their own. The smaller female wasn't too hard and was very happy to be out. As the neighbors watched her I tried to get the very large and overweight male out. He was a chore! I wound up actually bending my Control Stick to a kind of boomerang shape in the process because he was so heavy. He'd reportedly been in the pool for several hours before they'd called and I'd gotten out there but I finally got him out and he seemed no worse for the wear. Lucky dog!
Till next time, TadThe dog at the aqueduct, August 2005
These three photos are from a call I met Stacy on at the California Aqueduct section in the Baldy Mesa area West of the Victorville. The California Aqueduct system runs kind of South East and North West across the high desert through this part of Southern California. We both got to the call about the same time and followed the aqueduct security officer West a few miles along the service road to this junction. 
We Followed the officer over and then it was "where exactly is the dog stuck in the aqueduct?" "It's right there!" we were told. "Right where?"
Looking closely we could see the red fur and then wondered how in the heck it had gotten where it was!
And how would we get it out?
Well, Stacy lying on her stomach was able to just reach the dog with her 'Control Stick' and after getting the dog to back up just enough to get it with the cable noose part of the stick, she got it out and off the girder and up to the walk way.
Turned out that other than being terrified the dog was actually not too bad and Stacy was able to pick up the dog without the control stick and take it to the Apple Valley shelter.
Over the years we got many animals out of unusual situations. The dog with its head stuck in a pipe? Did that, several times with the dogs both dead and alive from the ordeal. Cat's with their heads in cans, jars, bags, none dead this time. A skunk with its head stuck in a jar, a squirrel with its head stuck in a jar, DONE THAT!
Snakes stuck in fences or caught in wiring, done it! Cats ground up in fan belts? Unfortunately, we've done that too. Mainly in apartment parking areas in the winter when cats or kittens would climb into the fan blade housing of the car and stay warm as the engine would cool. Then the car owner would get in to go someplace and the cat would figure to get out until the engine was turned over to start and- too late! All caught up in the fan belts.
As I'd mentioned in an earlier post, this was often where "MacGuyvering" came into play. Dealing with something that no one had before and you might never have to do deal with again!
Tad
We Followed the officer over and then it was "where exactly is the dog stuck in the aqueduct?" "It's right there!" we were told. "Right where?"
Looking closely we could see the red fur and then wondered how in the heck it had gotten where it was!
And how would we get it out?Well, Stacy lying on her stomach was able to just reach the dog with her 'Control Stick' and after getting the dog to back up just enough to get it with the cable noose part of the stick, she got it out and off the girder and up to the walk way.
Turned out that other than being terrified the dog was actually not too bad and Stacy was able to pick up the dog without the control stick and take it to the Apple Valley shelter.
Over the years we got many animals out of unusual situations. The dog with its head stuck in a pipe? Did that, several times with the dogs both dead and alive from the ordeal. Cat's with their heads in cans, jars, bags, none dead this time. A skunk with its head stuck in a jar, a squirrel with its head stuck in a jar, DONE THAT!
Snakes stuck in fences or caught in wiring, done it! Cats ground up in fan belts? Unfortunately, we've done that too. Mainly in apartment parking areas in the winter when cats or kittens would climb into the fan blade housing of the car and stay warm as the engine would cool. Then the car owner would get in to go someplace and the cat would figure to get out until the engine was turned over to start and- too late! All caught up in the fan belts.
As I'd mentioned in an earlier post, this was often where "MacGuyvering" came into play. Dealing with something that no one had before and you might never have to do deal with again!
Tad
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Gruesome stuff too! We did it all!
With this group I am showing two calls.The top two photos are from a horse that was loose and ran out onto a highway in Phelan California. This is early in the morning just a little after sunrise in February 2004, and the accident happened while it was still dark. The driver was on his way to work and told the CHP that the horse ran out and he couldn't avoid it.
I didn't include the horse photos, no need really as you can see that it was hit by the headlight and then fell into the windshield.
The horse was shot by the CHP officer before Stacy had arrived to the call due to its injuries. Badly broken legs and internal injuries from the impact. The Ford wagon was said to be going at least 60 MPH, probably more than that too!
Happened so fast he had no real time to break and hit the horse.
I later arrived with the tilt bed trailer for large dead animals and took care of the horses body. I don't remember anymore if the owner was ever located or not.If there was one found though, they'd have been looking at quite the cost for all the involved responses and reimbursements for the damage.
These last two photos are from a call that started for us at 2 in the morning a year later in February 2005 out near Hinkley California which is a little community North West from Barstow.
Seems that a large flock of sheep had broken out of their grazing area not far from these tracks and the herder had not stayed with the herd this night as he was supposed to.
Sheep being sheep, stay close together especially at night as it was then. The large herd moved around the area grazing as they went. They unfortunately for them found some good stuff to graze around and on both sides of the train tracks.
Now these are high speed tracks with the average speed of 60 to 70 MPH. A train just like this one came along in the dark and you can see what happened. But again, sheep being sheep, even with all this happening the remaining herd gathered back around the dead and injured sheep only to get hit again by two other fast freights. A lot of dead sheep.
I was the on-call Duty Supervisor that night and when I got the call from the Answering Service after they'd gotten it from the Railroad, I had the on-call officer from the Desert respond and had the San Bernardino valley officer called out to hook up the stock trailer and come on up!
Stacy and I arrived out there around 3:30 in the morning. It was hours longer for the valley ACO to get all the way up to our location as San Bernardino is about two hours from Barstow.
The CHP came out also since the sheep had also caused a couple of vehicle accidents on the nearby highway during the night when the sheep wandered on the highway on their way to the railroad tracks.
There were so many injured but still alive sheep the CHP was willing after they had their supervisor approve it, to start blasting the injured sheep to stop their suffering. Broken backs, smashed off legs, it was pretty sad.
None of us in Animal Control were equipped to handle and destroy a large amount of animals, especially large ones like sheep, to end their suffering.
It took awhile but the CHP officers, and with the ammunition we had, finally had all the injured sheep dead. Then it was the problem of so many dead sheep! By now it was regular day shift and I had our office call out the counties main rendering company, Stiles from Ontario California. Stiles had trucks all over the county that had contracts to pick up the large dead things like cows from the counties dairies.
The last photo shows the two Stiles trucks loading up the dead sheep. Their two large trucks were able to be filled up with all the over 120 sheep.
It was a lot of work for all of us, working to get the live sheep rounded up and all the dead sheep away from the tracks. The railroad wouldn't stop the trains so we had to be wary of those as they came trough too.
Another almost all night out on a call and a lot of call back money, but the call was taken care of and cleaned up less than 12 hours later.
On the job photos
This group of photos I took when I was 'riding along' with people I was supervising for their yearly evaluations.Top two photos from April 2005 show Gabriele as she faces off a "vicious" Chihuahua and then doing the ever present paperwork that is just part of the job, then as now!
The last two photos were the day I was riding along with another Stacy, I was this ones supervisor.
In our department we'd get calls for just about everything that crawled, swim, ran and flew, including things like this sick pigeon to take away from this residential driveway in Yucaipa California.
Stacy was getting her gloves on in the top photo and picking up in the last photo.
Unfortunately there wasn't a vet at the time that would take any effort on something like a common bird like a pigeon. So right after she picked it up I gave her to OK to euthanize it before we even left.
It had no leg band or indications of ownership. And any animal that had evidence of there being an owner, was almost always taken to a vet for treatment, at that owners expense by the way!
Both Gabriele and Stacy were very good Animal Control Officers, they worked together well and in five years I seldom got any complaints about them from the public. Stacy was becoming a pretty good investigator and came across a couple of really big animal fighting rings and cruelty cases of her own.
After we retired early and left in 2006 they soon both left Animal Control also, and they became School Police. And they're doing well in that career too!
Odd things one can see in the desert
These photos are of the kind of thing you might see in a TV show or movie that might show the desert residents as possibly being a little 'off'.Well, there were many places both Stacy and I went to over the years that would have proven those suspicions of mental stability to be true!
My personal favorite was the car tire turned inside out cut to look like a crown and often painted white and used as a planter. I saw many of those planters!!
The top photos are of a real eye catcher that used to be in Lucerne Valley area if you were on Highway 62 and heading to or from the Yucca Valley area. It was right off the highway on the South side and while not right next to it if you saw the moose you'd remember it!
As these photos are almost five years old now, I can't say if the "Moose" is still there or not. Back then, and for several years before I took these photos, for most of the year the moose, and it was/is a full grown stuffed moose, lived inside the 'cage'. At Christmas time the owners moved it out and decorated it the cage and a little area in their yard for the holidays.
I actually never stopped to ask the owners about the history of the moose as there aren't any that live in the San Bernardino County area that I'd ever heard of, where it had come from or how these folks had acquired it. I'm not sure if it still there since I know 'living' out in the weather of the high desert hadn't been too good for the moose, even with the shade roof on the cage.'He' had become pretty tattered looking as his fur wasn't doing to well with the heat, cold and wind of the area. If anybody that reads this drives that area and it is still there, send me a photo!
Last photo is just of the truck I was driving for a while in 2005. I was on "Route 66" or "National trails Highway" in the Daggett area just East of Barstow and heading East in this shot. Interstate 40 that replaced Route 66 for much of its length, is just South or in the background of this photo.
Perpetually dusty from all the dirt roads away form the towns, on this truck you can also see what the bad roads could do to those front air dams. Even a truck, where the air dams don't hang as close to the ground as a cars would be, most if not all would be damaged, falling off or just gone from the desert trucks.
Over the years many trucks were casualties of the washboard dirt roads of the high and low desert areas. Broken suspension parts, broken frames, cracked welds on the cages, cage doors falling off! All because of the rough roads taking their toll on the trucks.
I'll be honest though, the roads weren't the only problem. Most of the drivers, the ACO's, took no care or concern for their 'assigned' vehicles. They usually felt whatever broke the County would fix it! And would go flying down dirt roads, go out in areas most vehicles wouldn't and shouldn't!
For me, since I didn't want to ever be stranded anyplace, it was slow on those bad roads, tread lightly on those really bad roads. I still had cage hinges break. They were held on by large rivets and the bouncing and weight of metal doors themselves would literally slice through them or pull out the rivets.
I can only think of a few of times I had to be towed in. It was never for a literally broken truck!
Finally found more photos
I finally located some more photos from the time period. As I didn't have a digital camera yet and had used Stacy's or she'd taken the photos, I had to search through the thousands of pictures on a back up hard drive to find more from the era. So these are the next few posts I'll be doing.These photos actually go with the last post about rooster fighting. They were taken at the Cock Fight I had described I had responded to in the unincorporated Adelanto area of San Bernardino county.
There had been fighting going on earlier in the day and the preparations had been on for an evening competition, before I arrived with the Sheriff's that is!
As I'd said, this set up was the most sophisticated I'd ever been to. It was obvious that it had been operational for a long period of time with all the permanent structures to accommodate the fights. Top photo of the 'ring'. It was quite large and had the bench on the side.
The second photo was where the roosters were kept before their fight.
Also much better than many areas I'd seen for the "competitors" to wait.The property was like so many out in the open desert, it looked just like any other double wide mobile home with a garage and some out buildings all over the area, including our own property!
Unless there was an 'event' going on with all the cars around for it, you would never be able to tell that there was an illegal fighting ring in the garage complete with a snack bar!
Back when we had to pick up or 'impound' all the birds at these raids, we'd taken many really nicely made carrying cages, many were really nice wood with ornate decorations on some. We thought those must have been for the winning birds, but we needed them for anything we could put in them to take them to the shelter.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Rooster Fighters
I know, I know. It has been over a month since the last post.
I get these great ideas for topics and even kind of plan out what I want to say. Unfortunately these ideas often occur in the middle of the night on the occasions when I can't sleep or when I can't start typing on the thought.
I'll start off with comments on a TV show I was watching and go ramble on from there!
It was an episode of Animal Cops Phoenix on Animal Planet. This was one of a couple of episodes I'd recorded a month or so ago and just finally watching. Of all the different geographical areas of the shows in the series of Animal Cops, the shows from the Phoenix Arizona area remind me most of the High Desert areas of San Bernardino County that I enjoyed working. Also with Phoenix being much more metropolitan, they also show areas that remind me of many areas 'down in the valley', places like Muscoy, Bloomington and South Fontana that were also areas I'd worked over my decades with Animal Control.
In this particular episode, their "guys" had been called out to go with their local law enforcement to raid a back yard rooster or cock fighting facility in their area. I recalled the times when my department first began responding to these places. I think I may have already written about an example of this in older posts but the first ones I was involved in that I really remember were in the Ontario California area. For quite a few years in the 1980's our department had the contract with the City of Ontario for animal control, I know because I worked it for over 5 years myself.
The south end areas of the town was predominantly, but not all, Hispanic "Barrio" and that was were the first cock fighting rings were handled. In those days all the investigation was done by the city police and all paraphernalia, evidence and whatever else was done by them. Our department was the clean up crew and we'd get called out to impound all the birds; dead or alive, as well as whatever the detectives wanted taken away.
I remember on this call that the Ontario P.D. stayed with us, 4 ACO's with their "dog trucks" and the "David unit" which was a truck with a rear lift gate and center open area for large dead animals, along with the stock trailer on one of the trucks. It was a slow process that had begun in the afternoon and at the 11 PM shift change the PD just disappeared! We'd noticed when after the Police cars left, area residents started to come and check out what we were doing. We'd all done several trips to Devore before this point to take loads, and we all decided to wrap it up as quickly as we could now!
I thought about how far things had come for our department and this one too.
Back in the 1980's and 1990's, ALL the birds would be picked up alive and taken to the shelter. By the 2000's, it was down to maybe just 5 birds for evidentary purposes. In the show I watched all fighting birds were photographed, and most all were euthanized on the spot. Although for us euthanasia was the ultimate outcome weeks or months later for most of what we'd impound, until they started to get stolen back. Read on!
It was nothing but a pain to impound transport and care for upwards off 150 to 200 roosters that couldn't even see each other or they'd try to fight. They always took hours and hours to handle no matter how many ACO's were there. The department had only one stock trailer at the time so it would be fill that up with birds in carriers and cages, then fit as many of the carriers in the truck cages as well. Massive overtime was always assured if you were unlucky enough to get one of these calls in your area or had to go assist the person who got a call! And they almost ALWAYS seemed to have these raids on Friday and Saturday evenings!
The first time we went to a large old chicken ranch in Bloomington for a busted fighting ring, was the first time we got the OK to not only take all the birds but confiscate as many of the row cages they'd be kept in as we could carry. This was quite the boon for us as well as the shelter as to this point the birds were kept in cardboard carriers, boxes, animal crates, whatever was on hand to keep them in. After that call it became routine to take whatever we could find to transport the birds at the time of impound.
At the time, mid 1980's, the crime of Cock Fighting was in the news and considered almost a felony in scope so one thought at the time of impounding everything was due to the fact that owning or fighting birds was illegal anyway, and zoning regulations prevented almost all areas of San Bernardino County from even owning roosters, so take them all. And since many of the bird owners had scattered on arrival of the police, if they came to try and claim their birds they could be cited then. That last part never happened though!
Actually what started to happen was that the people began to find out where their birds had been taken and impounded. They'd drive up to the Devore Shelter which was and still is, in an isolated area that was easy pickings. So at its worse, fighting birds would be picked up at a raid, then by the following weekend people would have easily gained access to the yards of the shelter and would take back their birds. There was no perimeter alarm and only a 8 foot chain link fence with barbed wire at the top to keep out the bad guys. Only the main building and even then it was only offices had an alarm, if it had been remembered to be turned on, not the entire building! Though not many knew that fact. At least one time I remember that every bird picked up had been stolen back in just a few days. Another time they just started to disappear a few at a time until all gone in just a few weeks.
For a few years this became more of the norm at the shelter. Not just for fighting birds either, dogs, goats even two horses were stolen back from the shelter and never seen again since the owner wasn't quite so dumb to take them home again. They'd take whatever to a friends place for a few months. The community of Muscoy was just down the road from the shelter, about 5 minutes away. We'd started to believe that there were residents from Muscoy would basically go to the shelter to shop and see what they might want to take that week!
What really started to wind down the massive bird impounds though was the bill to the city agency or the county Sheriff's Department for those picked up in unincorporated areas. They, the agencies/departments, wanted the birds all picked up but with trials months down the road, if ever!, the care and feeding of the "evidence" got to become very expensive.
After all the balking on the fees and almost constant theft of any impounded birds, it became Put To Sleep (PTS) all birds that would have been impounded and take away all the bodies, cages, carriers, etc.
And finally, when I was still there, it went to cite release with the bird owners and allow them to take most of their birds themselves just confiscate any and all paraphernalia, drugs, cash on hand etc. and just keep a few birds, if any, as evidence. At the discretion of the law enforcement on the scene. By then, 2006, in most agencies, as crimes went, rooster fighting wasn't the "crime" it had been almost 20 years before.
One of the last organized fight faculties I went to was in the county area of Adelanto in the High Desert west of Victorville. Of course this was my last call on a Saturday night, my Friday, and I was there with another ACO and the Sheriff's department until almost midnight. Like many places, an unassuming kinda run down double wide mobile home on a dirt road a little ways North off the main highway of "Palmdale Road" also called Highway 18, a main East West route from the Palmdale/Lancaster area to Interstate 15 that took many L.A. residents to Las Vegas and beyond.
When I first arrived only one Sheriff's car had arrived before me so we walked around assessing the area to see what we were there for while his partner kept all the people 'company' so they wouldn't try to leave before their back up arrived.
You wouldn't know from the outside but inside what looked to be a garage was a fair sized ring complete with bleachers, a separate snack bar with a grill, cold drinks and a menu sign that told of lunch or dinner. All stocked up for quite an evening!
The tip off to the Sheriff's Department was from a disgruntled person who'd lost quite a bit of money at previous matches. Seems like this was a regularly scheduled event that had many regulars drive up from the L.A. area. It was the first one I'd ever been to that was primarily Asian clientele instead of Hispanic. It was sure funny to hear how so many people were "lost" and found their way to this particular place in all of the desert from Los Angeles! And none of them knew of any illegal activities there! Why would people fight those poor birds! "I was just meeting a friend here, I don't know why he wanted to meet me here!", and on and on.
Just outside in a little blocked off area was a large hole in the ground where the 'losers' had been tossed. Freshest losers on top and feathers under dirt showing the layers that must have been there as one match went down. We found the 'clinic' room where some first aid was given to some that must have been to valuable to just toss if they lost. In that room we came across a great collection of the "Gaffs" or the actual knives that would be attached to many of the roosters.
I kept a set of Gaffs (no I wasn't supposed too but I knew we were moving soon and I wasn't going to buy any!) from this raid as my own trophies of putting this guy, however temporarily, out of business.
You could usually tell a rooster raised for fighting because of it's trimmed comb and removed or cut close natural spurs. They'd be cut down and squared off on each leg to give the best attachment point for the gaffs so in addition to being tied and taped on, they couldn't fall off. Some birds, I was told the ones the owner didn't have enough money to by the expensive gaff sets for, would have sharpened and filed the natural spurs, so that the spurs on the bird would be sharp like a pick to stab the opponent.
The memories!!!!
Till next time, Tad
I get these great ideas for topics and even kind of plan out what I want to say. Unfortunately these ideas often occur in the middle of the night on the occasions when I can't sleep or when I can't start typing on the thought.
I'll start off with comments on a TV show I was watching and go ramble on from there!
It was an episode of Animal Cops Phoenix on Animal Planet. This was one of a couple of episodes I'd recorded a month or so ago and just finally watching. Of all the different geographical areas of the shows in the series of Animal Cops, the shows from the Phoenix Arizona area remind me most of the High Desert areas of San Bernardino County that I enjoyed working. Also with Phoenix being much more metropolitan, they also show areas that remind me of many areas 'down in the valley', places like Muscoy, Bloomington and South Fontana that were also areas I'd worked over my decades with Animal Control.
In this particular episode, their "guys" had been called out to go with their local law enforcement to raid a back yard rooster or cock fighting facility in their area. I recalled the times when my department first began responding to these places. I think I may have already written about an example of this in older posts but the first ones I was involved in that I really remember were in the Ontario California area. For quite a few years in the 1980's our department had the contract with the City of Ontario for animal control, I know because I worked it for over 5 years myself.
The south end areas of the town was predominantly, but not all, Hispanic "Barrio" and that was were the first cock fighting rings were handled. In those days all the investigation was done by the city police and all paraphernalia, evidence and whatever else was done by them. Our department was the clean up crew and we'd get called out to impound all the birds; dead or alive, as well as whatever the detectives wanted taken away.
I remember on this call that the Ontario P.D. stayed with us, 4 ACO's with their "dog trucks" and the "David unit" which was a truck with a rear lift gate and center open area for large dead animals, along with the stock trailer on one of the trucks. It was a slow process that had begun in the afternoon and at the 11 PM shift change the PD just disappeared! We'd noticed when after the Police cars left, area residents started to come and check out what we were doing. We'd all done several trips to Devore before this point to take loads, and we all decided to wrap it up as quickly as we could now!
I thought about how far things had come for our department and this one too.
Back in the 1980's and 1990's, ALL the birds would be picked up alive and taken to the shelter. By the 2000's, it was down to maybe just 5 birds for evidentary purposes. In the show I watched all fighting birds were photographed, and most all were euthanized on the spot. Although for us euthanasia was the ultimate outcome weeks or months later for most of what we'd impound, until they started to get stolen back. Read on!
It was nothing but a pain to impound transport and care for upwards off 150 to 200 roosters that couldn't even see each other or they'd try to fight. They always took hours and hours to handle no matter how many ACO's were there. The department had only one stock trailer at the time so it would be fill that up with birds in carriers and cages, then fit as many of the carriers in the truck cages as well. Massive overtime was always assured if you were unlucky enough to get one of these calls in your area or had to go assist the person who got a call! And they almost ALWAYS seemed to have these raids on Friday and Saturday evenings!
The first time we went to a large old chicken ranch in Bloomington for a busted fighting ring, was the first time we got the OK to not only take all the birds but confiscate as many of the row cages they'd be kept in as we could carry. This was quite the boon for us as well as the shelter as to this point the birds were kept in cardboard carriers, boxes, animal crates, whatever was on hand to keep them in. After that call it became routine to take whatever we could find to transport the birds at the time of impound.
At the time, mid 1980's, the crime of Cock Fighting was in the news and considered almost a felony in scope so one thought at the time of impounding everything was due to the fact that owning or fighting birds was illegal anyway, and zoning regulations prevented almost all areas of San Bernardino County from even owning roosters, so take them all. And since many of the bird owners had scattered on arrival of the police, if they came to try and claim their birds they could be cited then. That last part never happened though!
Actually what started to happen was that the people began to find out where their birds had been taken and impounded. They'd drive up to the Devore Shelter which was and still is, in an isolated area that was easy pickings. So at its worse, fighting birds would be picked up at a raid, then by the following weekend people would have easily gained access to the yards of the shelter and would take back their birds. There was no perimeter alarm and only a 8 foot chain link fence with barbed wire at the top to keep out the bad guys. Only the main building and even then it was only offices had an alarm, if it had been remembered to be turned on, not the entire building! Though not many knew that fact. At least one time I remember that every bird picked up had been stolen back in just a few days. Another time they just started to disappear a few at a time until all gone in just a few weeks.
For a few years this became more of the norm at the shelter. Not just for fighting birds either, dogs, goats even two horses were stolen back from the shelter and never seen again since the owner wasn't quite so dumb to take them home again. They'd take whatever to a friends place for a few months. The community of Muscoy was just down the road from the shelter, about 5 minutes away. We'd started to believe that there were residents from Muscoy would basically go to the shelter to shop and see what they might want to take that week!
What really started to wind down the massive bird impounds though was the bill to the city agency or the county Sheriff's Department for those picked up in unincorporated areas. They, the agencies/departments, wanted the birds all picked up but with trials months down the road, if ever!, the care and feeding of the "evidence" got to become very expensive.
After all the balking on the fees and almost constant theft of any impounded birds, it became Put To Sleep (PTS) all birds that would have been impounded and take away all the bodies, cages, carriers, etc.
And finally, when I was still there, it went to cite release with the bird owners and allow them to take most of their birds themselves just confiscate any and all paraphernalia, drugs, cash on hand etc. and just keep a few birds, if any, as evidence. At the discretion of the law enforcement on the scene. By then, 2006, in most agencies, as crimes went, rooster fighting wasn't the "crime" it had been almost 20 years before.
One of the last organized fight faculties I went to was in the county area of Adelanto in the High Desert west of Victorville. Of course this was my last call on a Saturday night, my Friday, and I was there with another ACO and the Sheriff's department until almost midnight. Like many places, an unassuming kinda run down double wide mobile home on a dirt road a little ways North off the main highway of "Palmdale Road" also called Highway 18, a main East West route from the Palmdale/Lancaster area to Interstate 15 that took many L.A. residents to Las Vegas and beyond.
When I first arrived only one Sheriff's car had arrived before me so we walked around assessing the area to see what we were there for while his partner kept all the people 'company' so they wouldn't try to leave before their back up arrived.
You wouldn't know from the outside but inside what looked to be a garage was a fair sized ring complete with bleachers, a separate snack bar with a grill, cold drinks and a menu sign that told of lunch or dinner. All stocked up for quite an evening!
The tip off to the Sheriff's Department was from a disgruntled person who'd lost quite a bit of money at previous matches. Seems like this was a regularly scheduled event that had many regulars drive up from the L.A. area. It was the first one I'd ever been to that was primarily Asian clientele instead of Hispanic. It was sure funny to hear how so many people were "lost" and found their way to this particular place in all of the desert from Los Angeles! And none of them knew of any illegal activities there! Why would people fight those poor birds! "I was just meeting a friend here, I don't know why he wanted to meet me here!", and on and on.
Just outside in a little blocked off area was a large hole in the ground where the 'losers' had been tossed. Freshest losers on top and feathers under dirt showing the layers that must have been there as one match went down. We found the 'clinic' room where some first aid was given to some that must have been to valuable to just toss if they lost. In that room we came across a great collection of the "Gaffs" or the actual knives that would be attached to many of the roosters.
I kept a set of Gaffs (no I wasn't supposed too but I knew we were moving soon and I wasn't going to buy any!) from this raid as my own trophies of putting this guy, however temporarily, out of business.
You could usually tell a rooster raised for fighting because of it's trimmed comb and removed or cut close natural spurs. They'd be cut down and squared off on each leg to give the best attachment point for the gaffs so in addition to being tied and taped on, they couldn't fall off. Some birds, I was told the ones the owner didn't have enough money to by the expensive gaff sets for, would have sharpened and filed the natural spurs, so that the spurs on the bird would be sharp like a pick to stab the opponent.
The memories!!!!
Till next time, Tad
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
It wasn't just a job, it was our life!
Actually for much of my all too common complaints (and memories) of the constant overtime, the, I thought, ignorant and uncaring supervisors, it WAS a much better job/career than I surely could have wound up in. I didn't have to be in "sales", didn't become a career burger flipper, didn't stay in the family business of movie theaters and didn't live in an office cubicle under the constant pressure of an always in your face micro-manager, we had them off and on over the years, I just didn't have to deal with them all the time.
I had freedom, even though I was part of a county organization I worked for myself, assessed the calls and situations, made the decisions, and my office was my truck cab and I could go almost anywhere I wanted and not cost me any money for gas, and get paid to do it too!
Could it have been better? Of course!
Could it have been a worse experience?
I saw those people come and go over the years that it probably had been a poor job choice attempt and resulting bad experience for them.
I honestly feel I was lucky, we we're lucky. I was lucky to have been hired on at a time of the beginning of several years of really good departmental growth and expansion in 1981, and been good enough and competent enough to last 25 years! Lucky that I was able to work in the same department and doing the same job as my wife, even though many thought that was a bad idea and we had to put up with all kinds of crap so nothing could ever be said of 'preferential treatment' because we were married.
We always thought it was so ironic that because we were married, we had to work opposite ends of the valley or one work the valley one work the desert so we wouldn't be "too close" to each other and be a "problem", while others were having hot and heavy relationships that nobody much did anything about, because they weren't married!! When I became a supervisor then I wasn't supposed to ever be on or able to 'direct' Stacy or give her any supervisory breaks at all. Never worked out that way though. I quite often went out on after hours calls with her or for or even for her, and if I was there and a decision needed to be made I just did it! None of the other supervisor's ever complained about it that I heard of and it meant they didn't get called about whatever the call was. You can check a past post about on-call to read what that was like.
And if a new much better life opportunity hadn't come up beginning in 2000 when we bought the property that ultimately became our semi-retirement place to live and work in 2006, we'd probably still be there. But we're very glad we're not!!
Our life away from California is and has been better than ANY could have been in the area we worked and lived. With the constant influx of residents, everything got more of everything. More calls, more and more and more time to get to the calls because of all the traffic, more expensive, more late calls, more on-call and less of the important things. Less people to do all these 'more' calls, less concern of quality over quantity of calls handled, less concern of just plain common sense and how to use it!!!!
Oh well. It is so easy to get going on 'tangents' when writing about working there!
Till next time, Tad
I had freedom, even though I was part of a county organization I worked for myself, assessed the calls and situations, made the decisions, and my office was my truck cab and I could go almost anywhere I wanted and not cost me any money for gas, and get paid to do it too!
Could it have been better? Of course!
Could it have been a worse experience?
I saw those people come and go over the years that it probably had been a poor job choice attempt and resulting bad experience for them.
I honestly feel I was lucky, we we're lucky. I was lucky to have been hired on at a time of the beginning of several years of really good departmental growth and expansion in 1981, and been good enough and competent enough to last 25 years! Lucky that I was able to work in the same department and doing the same job as my wife, even though many thought that was a bad idea and we had to put up with all kinds of crap so nothing could ever be said of 'preferential treatment' because we were married.
We always thought it was so ironic that because we were married, we had to work opposite ends of the valley or one work the valley one work the desert so we wouldn't be "too close" to each other and be a "problem", while others were having hot and heavy relationships that nobody much did anything about, because they weren't married!! When I became a supervisor then I wasn't supposed to ever be on or able to 'direct' Stacy or give her any supervisory breaks at all. Never worked out that way though. I quite often went out on after hours calls with her or for or even for her, and if I was there and a decision needed to be made I just did it! None of the other supervisor's ever complained about it that I heard of and it meant they didn't get called about whatever the call was. You can check a past post about on-call to read what that was like.
And if a new much better life opportunity hadn't come up beginning in 2000 when we bought the property that ultimately became our semi-retirement place to live and work in 2006, we'd probably still be there. But we're very glad we're not!!
Our life away from California is and has been better than ANY could have been in the area we worked and lived. With the constant influx of residents, everything got more of everything. More calls, more and more and more time to get to the calls because of all the traffic, more expensive, more late calls, more on-call and less of the important things. Less people to do all these 'more' calls, less concern of quality over quantity of calls handled, less concern of just plain common sense and how to use it!!!!
Oh well. It is so easy to get going on 'tangents' when writing about working there!
Till next time, Tad
Thursday, April 1, 2010
"We're What You Might Call.............."Experts"
This now famous line also from the "Mythbusters" applies to many things.
In animal control its an unavoidable idea, you are at a call in uniform so you are expected to have all the answers!
No matter what the problem, you HAVE the answers. At least that's what Mr. or Ms. John Q Public thinks and expects. And after a few years on the job you actually might.
Yes you had the laws to enforce and that's black and white, about the only black and white there is in any law enforcement job! And yes in the later years there came the "Standard Practice Manual" that actually didn't do much else but lay any blame on 'issues' that came up as the employee not following the manual.
Often there was a bit of "McGyvering" involved in many call situations. That was the fun of it. Especially in the first few years not much is really routine. New day, new calls, even if they're given out as the same kind every day. A 905-S or 'Sam' (stray pick up) could be as easy as putting the leash on the dog a walking it out. Or it could be a workout when you get there and find the dog is terrified of anyone and is loose in a half acre back yard. That happened to me many times.
Skunk calls were often a bit of a consternation for me, even after a few years of experience. In the days before it was so built up in the Rancho Cucamonga area, I would often relocate Skunks to the mainly uninhabited foothills North of the town instead of euthanasia on the spot.
There were a couple of houses that would lock down their traps to prevent theft. I remember several times driving from those houses to the foothill areas where I'd let them go with the captured skunk dangling off the control stick just outside the truck window. I got some strange looks and I imagine the skunk was scared, I'd be! But a few minutes of scared was better than permanent death I always felt. If I could take the entire trap I would and release the animal from that and return it emptied. I learned that if you picked up the skunk with the control stick, as long as you got the loop in front of the hind legs and picked it up off the ground, the skunk couldn't raise their tail and spray. And if they sprayed it could wreck every bodies day! After the building boom of the 1990's it was too difficult to relocated them so by then every skunk had to be destroyed in the trap and removed.
Over the years I learned by trial and error about ways to handle various animals in ways I hoped would be easier on them and on me!
Pick up a Opposum by it's tail, get the control stick around the middle of the body of a cat, then since they wouldn't be getting strangled, they would often, but not always, 'flip out'. Lots of little tricks you could learn over the years or from other people.
This challenge was something not all employees could conquer. They could try but some people just never got it and wound up hurting themselves or the animals.
I remember one guy, he was nice enough and tried his best, but he was getting bitten very often. For whatever reason he just could not figure out how to effectively use his control stick. He would catch and hold dogs or cats by their necks which is a giant mistake since in most breeds the dog can turn almost around in the loose neck skin. Cats usually being small were often too quick and could get him too. So he was getting bitten on his hands and arms. He wound up resigning after really severe bite wounds on both of his forearms from a call with an aggressive German Shepherd.
Bites, scratches, gouges, all awaited the unprepared or careless. These things could even happen to the experienced and prepared, just not as often then often worse!
More later, Tad
In animal control its an unavoidable idea, you are at a call in uniform so you are expected to have all the answers!
No matter what the problem, you HAVE the answers. At least that's what Mr. or Ms. John Q Public thinks and expects. And after a few years on the job you actually might.
Yes you had the laws to enforce and that's black and white, about the only black and white there is in any law enforcement job! And yes in the later years there came the "Standard Practice Manual" that actually didn't do much else but lay any blame on 'issues' that came up as the employee not following the manual.
Often there was a bit of "McGyvering" involved in many call situations. That was the fun of it. Especially in the first few years not much is really routine. New day, new calls, even if they're given out as the same kind every day. A 905-S or 'Sam' (stray pick up) could be as easy as putting the leash on the dog a walking it out. Or it could be a workout when you get there and find the dog is terrified of anyone and is loose in a half acre back yard. That happened to me many times.
Skunk calls were often a bit of a consternation for me, even after a few years of experience. In the days before it was so built up in the Rancho Cucamonga area, I would often relocate Skunks to the mainly uninhabited foothills North of the town instead of euthanasia on the spot.
There were a couple of houses that would lock down their traps to prevent theft. I remember several times driving from those houses to the foothill areas where I'd let them go with the captured skunk dangling off the control stick just outside the truck window. I got some strange looks and I imagine the skunk was scared, I'd be! But a few minutes of scared was better than permanent death I always felt. If I could take the entire trap I would and release the animal from that and return it emptied. I learned that if you picked up the skunk with the control stick, as long as you got the loop in front of the hind legs and picked it up off the ground, the skunk couldn't raise their tail and spray. And if they sprayed it could wreck every bodies day! After the building boom of the 1990's it was too difficult to relocated them so by then every skunk had to be destroyed in the trap and removed.
Over the years I learned by trial and error about ways to handle various animals in ways I hoped would be easier on them and on me!
Pick up a Opposum by it's tail, get the control stick around the middle of the body of a cat, then since they wouldn't be getting strangled, they would often, but not always, 'flip out'. Lots of little tricks you could learn over the years or from other people.
This challenge was something not all employees could conquer. They could try but some people just never got it and wound up hurting themselves or the animals.
I remember one guy, he was nice enough and tried his best, but he was getting bitten very often. For whatever reason he just could not figure out how to effectively use his control stick. He would catch and hold dogs or cats by their necks which is a giant mistake since in most breeds the dog can turn almost around in the loose neck skin. Cats usually being small were often too quick and could get him too. So he was getting bitten on his hands and arms. He wound up resigning after really severe bite wounds on both of his forearms from a call with an aggressive German Shepherd.
Bites, scratches, gouges, all awaited the unprepared or careless. These things could even happen to the experienced and prepared, just not as often then often worse!
More later, Tad
Monday, March 15, 2010
FIDO
We were watching a movie yesterday and the main characters dog was named the ubiquitous Fido.
Where in the heck did that name come from?
I have no clue, I also have never actually seen a dog of any kind named Fido either.
I actually came across thousands of dogs over the years, and while most never had a name I knew of (picked up stray), I did come across some pretty different names!
One dog, of all the dogs I came across, had the most original, perfectly fit and unforgettable name. This dog was a Chinese Crested mix male, he had almost no hair at all and was pink and kind of wrinkly and I thought it was part Shar-Pei too, he was named "Scrotum".
I remember there was "Dogg", Dawg", "Ogg", "Mutt", "Scrappy", "Scruffy", "Killer" often a small dog, "Bengi", "Cujo", racial slurs, usually used by gang members pit bulls back then. I think just about any name one could come up with was used at some point in time. But never a Fido!
I recall the 'pure breed' dogs, some costing thousands of dollars, with their often very long "pedigree" name like "King Francis of the Highland Farms in the Winter" that would be shortened to "Boy".
Yes, people and their pets!
And it was the same with their cats too! My personal favorite was, and I'm not kidding here either, was a real "Fluffy the 5th"!
But I guess I'm probably just as bad with the name game. When I was a kid I owned a pet Squirrel Monkey, this was in the 1970's when it was legal, not right, but legal, and many were available then at area pet stores. Anyway, in the pet store he was named "Chico", I renamed him "Darwin" when I got him home. It fit to me at the time!
Where in the heck did that name come from?
I have no clue, I also have never actually seen a dog of any kind named Fido either.
I actually came across thousands of dogs over the years, and while most never had a name I knew of (picked up stray), I did come across some pretty different names!
One dog, of all the dogs I came across, had the most original, perfectly fit and unforgettable name. This dog was a Chinese Crested mix male, he had almost no hair at all and was pink and kind of wrinkly and I thought it was part Shar-Pei too, he was named "Scrotum".
I remember there was "Dogg", Dawg", "Ogg", "Mutt", "Scrappy", "Scruffy", "Killer" often a small dog, "Bengi", "Cujo", racial slurs, usually used by gang members pit bulls back then. I think just about any name one could come up with was used at some point in time. But never a Fido!
I recall the 'pure breed' dogs, some costing thousands of dollars, with their often very long "pedigree" name like "King Francis of the Highland Farms in the Winter" that would be shortened to "Boy".
Yes, people and their pets!
And it was the same with their cats too! My personal favorite was, and I'm not kidding here either, was a real "Fluffy the 5th"!
But I guess I'm probably just as bad with the name game. When I was a kid I owned a pet Squirrel Monkey, this was in the 1970's when it was legal, not right, but legal, and many were available then at area pet stores. Anyway, in the pet store he was named "Chico", I renamed him "Darwin" when I got him home. It fit to me at the time!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Animal Control in the news- its seldom good news!
Actually, with the Internet and search engines something in animal control is almost always in the news nowadays!
Sometimes I'll do just that and search out some stories, often I come across them in the stories I read in my Google Reader.
Back in "the day", I remember myself and others in the department would be trying to find stories or more detailed information about something that had made the TV news, be it local or national.
While as I said I do sometimes look around, I'm always interested in stories that I read or hear about from the area I worked and lived in for so long or from the general area we now live in.
Yesterday I saw two stories that were interesting to me.
First was a story about some residents in the Seattle area that were upset that their "pet" cats had been caught in traps in a neighboring Police Department substation.
The station had set traps because the area cat population was out of control and the male cats were marking their territory by spraying things. Mentioned in the story was cats spraying the engine areas of the motorcycle units which caused the urine to cook and smell pretty bad for the riders. I actually doubted how it was reported the smell would make the riders "sick", I readily admit it would stink for a while! So the department, working with the area animal control department, started to set out traps and had been catching cats for a while before this incident apparently occurred. As reported, these residents had two cats, an old "15 year old" cat and a "playmate" younger cat. Apparent the older cat "disappeared" then a couple of weeks later the younger cat also disappeared. Now the owner never checked the local shelter after the first cat vanished, they did everything else though, signs, notices, etc. Somehow they were told about the P.D. trapping cats and discovered that both cats had been caught and impounded.
They reclaimed their younger cat and were upset that after a veterinarian evaluation, the older cat had been euthanized shortly after impound as unadoptable due to poor health and unowned since it had no microchip or any other owner identification. So many people NEVER bothered to check the shelters as one of the first things to do, not the last. I was very often hearing how their pet actually (supposedly) had a collar or a tag and that either or both had fallen off and they just hadn't gotten around to replacing it!
As with most animal related stories like this one, there were numerous comments on the story, most condemning the P.D.. "Shame on them" was often used. Only a few people wrote the obvious, why were the cats even out loose to be caught! Of course the writer went for the heart tag line used of "what will we tell our two year old happened to his favorite cat?".
Sorry folks, that's crap! Most two year old kids don't do much more than torment small animals! Now it usually isn't done with any intentional suffering, they're two years old! And at two years old, he won't remember the cats anyway! At that age you'd probably have to get to "Fluffy #15" before the kid would be at the age of remembering, and I'm still not saying caring yet either!, about the family pets of his youth.
Suggestions were made about covering the motorcycles and equipment that the cats are damaging. I cover our motorcycles and it has never stopped the cats from going up under the covers and leaving hair and muddy little footprints all over everything.
Nope, the cats should NOT be out loose! If you cared about them that is.
When I first started as a field officer, even back in the 1980's, it was probably a 3 to 1 on cat versus dog calls. I'd say that in many areas by the time I'd left that ratio was up to 6 to 1. The shelter euthanasia ratio was always higher for cats, I'd say around 9 cats to 1 dog there. Almost all adult cats were destroyed unless they were looking more like a pure breed of some type and were friendly, most adult cats were not. They were usually scared, handled in ways that would honestly terrify any animal, and would defend themselves the only way they could, teeth and claws.
And during puppy kitten "season"? Twice a year, the spring and the fall, those numbers would shoot up to 15 or 20 (or more) to one! Many of the more urban areas of the time like Rancho Cucamonga or Ontario would have people finding litters of kittens, usually a few hours to a few days old, in the bushes around the house, under boxes in a garage, in the back seat of a car that had been left in the driveway with the windows down! The discovery would usually scare and chase away the mother cat and so we'd get the call. There were NO facilities that would/could take on the task of caring for thousands of new to recently born kittens. Every year there would be a citizen or two that felt guilty about the call for pickup, especially when told what the ultimate outcome WOULD be of the litter, and would opt to try and hand raise one or more of the kittens. I can truthfully say in all my years there I only knew of about 3 people that successfully raised newborn kittens. Most people would not be able to deal with the constant attention required.
Often it was 5 to 8 newborn or very young kittens in a litter, and times that by 4 or more calls a day! All to be destroyed as soon as we arrived at the shelter.
Every year with both dogs and cats I'd get that moronic idea from people of "letting the children see the miracle of life", or getting a dog or cat for the baby to "grow up with"! With the first I always said "rent the National Geographic video!", with the second my opinion was "forget the real pet, just get a stuffed one!".
My words of wisdom with cats or really any pet? If you care, I mean really love your pet like you think you do, keep it confined at home! Don't let it run loose, get the necessary shots, and get a micro chip implanted in it!!!!!
A brief story on the microchip, a worthwhile investment. When they first began to be widely implanted I picked up a small dog in the Lytle Creek area that on discovery of of the chip with its information, it was discovered that the dog had been stolen from a yard about 50 miles away several months earlier! The true owners never thought they'd see their small dog again. Unfortunately the dog had escaped from whoever had taken it and the dog was found running loose in Lytle Creek so nothing could be done to prosecute the people that took it. I also know the microchips, several different companies make them, save many pets every year.
The second story was first told to me in an e-mail. She had attempted to send the story with the e-mail but it didn't work. I was able to go to the news site and read it.
Seems the San Bernardino Humane Society is in hot water for the 'secret' nightly euthanasia of unwanted pets brought to their facility by area and out of area "rescue" groups. Article said around 800 a month or 9,600 pets a year. The article went on to say that the San Bernardino City pound total was around 12,400 a year, and San Bernardino County- now down to 2 shelters- is a little over 10,000 a year. Add it up and realize that these numbers are only a few of the shelters in that general area. I can think of 6 others of various sizes! Welcome to the pet problems of the big cities. Too many people, too many expendable and uncared for pets.
The upsetness seems to be because the San Bernardino Humane Society is supposed to be a "no kill" facility with no shelter of their own.
Most of the time I was with County Animal Control there was a good sized animosity between our department and theirs. They often and always seemed to complain about the operation of our department and about how our department didn't follow through with cruelty complaints they referred. Our management complained that for a Humane Society, they weren't very humane and more out for the buck with their spay/neuter programs and such.
Shortly before we'd left that area the Humane Society had finished a brand new and much larger facility in San Bernardino. I drove by it many times but never got the tour.
The Humane Society had been for years in what I think was once a fast food restaurant or some such business off Highland Ave. in North San Bernardino. I had been at the old facility many times since for a long time any animals that were euthanized were picked up by our department and taken to our shelter for 'disposal' with the deads from our facility.
For a brief time they were sending their live pets for euthanasia to our shelter too, but that didn't last long when the 'word' got out. I think being a "Humane Society" and with the image of the national organization to live up to is next to impossible in an area like San Bernardino. In previous times of tight money many people got rid of pets first. Often when they'd call and find out it cost as much as it did to have YOUR pet picked up, they'd basically open the gate and kick the dog out. Or the cliche of take the pet 'for a ride' and drive away when it was let out. And with the current state of California's economy I'm certain the pet dumping is at an all time high.
It will be interesting to see what comes of this news story. I know that as often happens in things like this, "heads will roll" whether justified or not. The story says the H.S. has a 3.5 million dollar operating budget and the story said that the animals were all destroyed at no cost to those bringing them in.
And the guy that was in charge of the S.B. Humane Society while I was in Animal Control? He's now the person in charge of County Animal Control. He'd started shortly after we left. I knew him a little bit, I'd done a local PBS call in show once with him and I'd seen him during the fires of 2003.
I'll be curious to see if he gets reported in print and chimes in on this since I'd been told last year he still had connections with the Humane Society he'd been in charge of for so long.
More later! Tad
Sometimes I'll do just that and search out some stories, often I come across them in the stories I read in my Google Reader.
Back in "the day", I remember myself and others in the department would be trying to find stories or more detailed information about something that had made the TV news, be it local or national.
While as I said I do sometimes look around, I'm always interested in stories that I read or hear about from the area I worked and lived in for so long or from the general area we now live in.
Yesterday I saw two stories that were interesting to me.
First was a story about some residents in the Seattle area that were upset that their "pet" cats had been caught in traps in a neighboring Police Department substation.
The station had set traps because the area cat population was out of control and the male cats were marking their territory by spraying things. Mentioned in the story was cats spraying the engine areas of the motorcycle units which caused the urine to cook and smell pretty bad for the riders. I actually doubted how it was reported the smell would make the riders "sick", I readily admit it would stink for a while! So the department, working with the area animal control department, started to set out traps and had been catching cats for a while before this incident apparently occurred. As reported, these residents had two cats, an old "15 year old" cat and a "playmate" younger cat. Apparent the older cat "disappeared" then a couple of weeks later the younger cat also disappeared. Now the owner never checked the local shelter after the first cat vanished, they did everything else though, signs, notices, etc. Somehow they were told about the P.D. trapping cats and discovered that both cats had been caught and impounded.
They reclaimed their younger cat and were upset that after a veterinarian evaluation, the older cat had been euthanized shortly after impound as unadoptable due to poor health and unowned since it had no microchip or any other owner identification. So many people NEVER bothered to check the shelters as one of the first things to do, not the last. I was very often hearing how their pet actually (supposedly) had a collar or a tag and that either or both had fallen off and they just hadn't gotten around to replacing it!
As with most animal related stories like this one, there were numerous comments on the story, most condemning the P.D.. "Shame on them" was often used. Only a few people wrote the obvious, why were the cats even out loose to be caught! Of course the writer went for the heart tag line used of "what will we tell our two year old happened to his favorite cat?".
Sorry folks, that's crap! Most two year old kids don't do much more than torment small animals! Now it usually isn't done with any intentional suffering, they're two years old! And at two years old, he won't remember the cats anyway! At that age you'd probably have to get to "Fluffy #15" before the kid would be at the age of remembering, and I'm still not saying caring yet either!, about the family pets of his youth.
Suggestions were made about covering the motorcycles and equipment that the cats are damaging. I cover our motorcycles and it has never stopped the cats from going up under the covers and leaving hair and muddy little footprints all over everything.
Nope, the cats should NOT be out loose! If you cared about them that is.
When I first started as a field officer, even back in the 1980's, it was probably a 3 to 1 on cat versus dog calls. I'd say that in many areas by the time I'd left that ratio was up to 6 to 1. The shelter euthanasia ratio was always higher for cats, I'd say around 9 cats to 1 dog there. Almost all adult cats were destroyed unless they were looking more like a pure breed of some type and were friendly, most adult cats were not. They were usually scared, handled in ways that would honestly terrify any animal, and would defend themselves the only way they could, teeth and claws.
And during puppy kitten "season"? Twice a year, the spring and the fall, those numbers would shoot up to 15 or 20 (or more) to one! Many of the more urban areas of the time like Rancho Cucamonga or Ontario would have people finding litters of kittens, usually a few hours to a few days old, in the bushes around the house, under boxes in a garage, in the back seat of a car that had been left in the driveway with the windows down! The discovery would usually scare and chase away the mother cat and so we'd get the call. There were NO facilities that would/could take on the task of caring for thousands of new to recently born kittens. Every year there would be a citizen or two that felt guilty about the call for pickup, especially when told what the ultimate outcome WOULD be of the litter, and would opt to try and hand raise one or more of the kittens. I can truthfully say in all my years there I only knew of about 3 people that successfully raised newborn kittens. Most people would not be able to deal with the constant attention required.
Often it was 5 to 8 newborn or very young kittens in a litter, and times that by 4 or more calls a day! All to be destroyed as soon as we arrived at the shelter.
Every year with both dogs and cats I'd get that moronic idea from people of "letting the children see the miracle of life", or getting a dog or cat for the baby to "grow up with"! With the first I always said "rent the National Geographic video!", with the second my opinion was "forget the real pet, just get a stuffed one!".
My words of wisdom with cats or really any pet? If you care, I mean really love your pet like you think you do, keep it confined at home! Don't let it run loose, get the necessary shots, and get a micro chip implanted in it!!!!!
A brief story on the microchip, a worthwhile investment. When they first began to be widely implanted I picked up a small dog in the Lytle Creek area that on discovery of of the chip with its information, it was discovered that the dog had been stolen from a yard about 50 miles away several months earlier! The true owners never thought they'd see their small dog again. Unfortunately the dog had escaped from whoever had taken it and the dog was found running loose in Lytle Creek so nothing could be done to prosecute the people that took it. I also know the microchips, several different companies make them, save many pets every year.
The second story was first told to me in an e-mail. She had attempted to send the story with the e-mail but it didn't work. I was able to go to the news site and read it.
Seems the San Bernardino Humane Society is in hot water for the 'secret' nightly euthanasia of unwanted pets brought to their facility by area and out of area "rescue" groups. Article said around 800 a month or 9,600 pets a year. The article went on to say that the San Bernardino City pound total was around 12,400 a year, and San Bernardino County- now down to 2 shelters- is a little over 10,000 a year. Add it up and realize that these numbers are only a few of the shelters in that general area. I can think of 6 others of various sizes! Welcome to the pet problems of the big cities. Too many people, too many expendable and uncared for pets.
The upsetness seems to be because the San Bernardino Humane Society is supposed to be a "no kill" facility with no shelter of their own.
Most of the time I was with County Animal Control there was a good sized animosity between our department and theirs. They often and always seemed to complain about the operation of our department and about how our department didn't follow through with cruelty complaints they referred. Our management complained that for a Humane Society, they weren't very humane and more out for the buck with their spay/neuter programs and such.
Shortly before we'd left that area the Humane Society had finished a brand new and much larger facility in San Bernardino. I drove by it many times but never got the tour.
The Humane Society had been for years in what I think was once a fast food restaurant or some such business off Highland Ave. in North San Bernardino. I had been at the old facility many times since for a long time any animals that were euthanized were picked up by our department and taken to our shelter for 'disposal' with the deads from our facility.
For a brief time they were sending their live pets for euthanasia to our shelter too, but that didn't last long when the 'word' got out. I think being a "Humane Society" and with the image of the national organization to live up to is next to impossible in an area like San Bernardino. In previous times of tight money many people got rid of pets first. Often when they'd call and find out it cost as much as it did to have YOUR pet picked up, they'd basically open the gate and kick the dog out. Or the cliche of take the pet 'for a ride' and drive away when it was let out. And with the current state of California's economy I'm certain the pet dumping is at an all time high.
It will be interesting to see what comes of this news story. I know that as often happens in things like this, "heads will roll" whether justified or not. The story says the H.S. has a 3.5 million dollar operating budget and the story said that the animals were all destroyed at no cost to those bringing them in.
And the guy that was in charge of the S.B. Humane Society while I was in Animal Control? He's now the person in charge of County Animal Control. He'd started shortly after we left. I knew him a little bit, I'd done a local PBS call in show once with him and I'd seen him during the fires of 2003.
I'll be curious to see if he gets reported in print and chimes in on this since I'd been told last year he still had connections with the Humane Society he'd been in charge of for so long.
More later! Tad
Monday, January 11, 2010
Drivin' my life away!
Or could I say, that need for speed? To get from point A to point B and back as quick as possible!
No, not just a part of the famous quote from "Top Gun", but also the thing, speeding, that EVERYBODY did and probably still does back down in California at Animal Control. But back then, and to 2006 when we left the department, I know there were people in the department who thought they were top guns. They felt that with all their miles driven they were a kin to other professional drivers, and invincible! I know because I felt it too! In a unique county truck, with lights all over it, working in law enforcement and as such we all pretty much got away with stuff like traffic violations and things that the average 'citizen' would have been cited or even arrested for!
When I got bumped up from Animal License Checker to Animal Control Field Officer in the spring of 1983 I got my first assigned truck I drove anywhere from 80 to 300 miles (or more!) a day depending what area I was working. And you just naturally started to keep up with the flow of traffic with all that driving!
In in the early 1980's that was VERY FAST! Ironically not the CRAZY fast it became with the increase of traffic over the years. You could get away with it then as the traffic was almost non existent when away from the L.A., San Bernardino or other city areas. It was easier not to speed when there was no traffic around but then you had so many miles to cover, so you'd speed!
In the early to mid 1980's on the weekends, if there was an "emergency" call in the "outlying areas", the high and low desert areas and the mountains as well, an ACO from the valley had to make the drive. Back then while it was more 24/7 service in the valleys, it was Monday to Friday service with 'emergency' service only on the weekends for the outlying areas. I liked the high desert areas of Hesperia and Apple Valley so since I worked on Saturdays I usually volunteered to go for the long drives. Since I liked to go I became the ACO to go most of the time. It would be one or two calls that could take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours to drive all that way there, get the animal and either take it to the vet or shelter if it wasn't in bad shape. Or sometimes to the shelter after the vet. Back then there was only one animal shelter for the entire 'high desert'. It was (and still is) located in Apple Valley at the North end of town, and was the place for most all animals for the entire Desert area almost out to Barstow. And back then it was all 'Unincorporated County' meaning 'our' area to service, except for the cities of Victorville and Adelanto. Both those cities had small departments and their own ACO's. But they all impounded out at the Apple Valley animal shelter.
It made for a very relaxing last day of my work week for me, these long drives, I really liked to drive and explore back then. Especially if it wasn't my gas and I was getting paid for it! I always stopped at one of the Carl's Junior restaurants in either Hesperia or Victorville. A large Iced Tea and sometimes lunch too after the call was done and I was on my way back to San Bernardino, 40 minutes from the Carl's on East Main street in Hesperia back then.
I remember zipping along on the old two lane main road from the I-15 to Phelan or Wrightwood. Thinking back now, I know it was crazy and I'm extremely lucky just from doing all that to be sitting here and typing this! 60 to 80 MPH on a narrow two lane road that had three very large dips in it and was in OK but not great shape and often rough. It was all nearly deserted roads as I sped to the calls back then. More roads were dirt back then too once off the main drags. Those well used dirt roads were often really bad washboard paths. The trick was when you could, you'd try to get to 25 to 35 MPH and the truck would kind of hit the tops of the washboard and the ride was much improved until you slowed back down. Then it felt like the truck would shake apart. And to be honest they often did just that. Several of the local area ACO's over the years would wind up having truck cages welded, cracked frames, broken suspension parts, and more, all from the rough desert roads. And finding houses? Away from the cities it often could be as bad as "go a mile past the Joshua Tree in the middle of the road and turn left at the third dirt road on the left" Try finding that one! By 2006 it hadn't gotten much better either. Even with the map books just so many small roads weren't in the book!
I remember one time, I was a little over-confident by this time of my desert road driving abilities, I was going about 50 mph on a rough dirt road in Phelan. I was in the one and only Chevy S-10 animal control truck the department ever had, I wish I had photos of it but I never took any! It was my first assigned truck as an ACO. It was the V-6 standard cab S-10 and had a 4 speed manual transmission. I could drive a stick shift and most employees could not so it was offered and I took it. It was a hot rod! Since it was small and with the weight of the cages on the back end where the light bed would have been, it handled like it was on rails! It would very easily go 80 mph and got in the low 20 mpg range when that era full sized GMC's and Chevy's got 8 to 12 mpg, so I could go a long way between fuel stops.
Anyway, I was so intent on reading the dirt road as I sped along I didn't see the paved rise for the railroad tracks that I was approaching FAST! I did see the tracks but too late, so I hit the paved rise still going about 40 and was airborne! At least I'm pretty certain it did all the way airborne. A very scary "Dukes of Hazard" moment! Everything loose was flying in the cab, and I noticed out the side mirror as I landed the spare tire from under the truck bouncing down the dirt road behind me. It still took about 80 yards to get fully stopped. WOW! Was what I remember thinking! No real damage other then to my nerves, I went back and got the spare and put it in a cage and drove on, a LOT slower though! The " County Yards" where all the trucks were repaired, put the spare back up in it's holder under the rear end. How did it fall out I was asked? I had "no idea!"
I recall many times driving fast out the old Route 66, National Trails Highway, from Victorville to Barstow. Especially in the later years it was often much faster to go that route over fighting traffic on the freeway, especially on Fridays or Sundays with all the Las Vegas traffic going (Fridays) and coming (Sundays).
After the community of Helendale, National Trails Highway was mostly fairly wide and gentle turns so it was easy to speed along to get you to Barstow and Hinkley and calls in that area.
Longest regular drives for me, and these did take all day, were when I was living and working in the desert in the 1990's and I was picked to go out weekly for a couple of months to the San Bernardino county outpost of Big River. This was an area of homes situated on tribal lands along the Colorado River a few miles south-west and in California across the river from Parker Arizona. The residents in this community had 99 year leases for their properties but could never own them. But it was still San Bernardino county and when the few residents there complained about dog problems to the county board of supervisors, the department said they'd provide "service". So that service became someone driving out one day a week to their area and patrol and address any complaint calls that came in during the days between visits.
I was told to be 'on the road' and heading out that way by 6 am on the days I drove out. This was usually about a 4 hour, one way, drive from our home in Phelan to Big River. I actually only recall handling just a few calls in that area. Usually I'd drive all the way out to Big River, patrol (drive around) in the Big River community so I'd been seen there for about half an hour or so. This was a small community and I was going over the same areas more than once to stay there that long!
Then I'd drive up on the California side of the Colorado river on the San Bernardino county side of Lake Havasu, to a community called Havasu Landing. Same thing there, patrol through the area, do any calls that came in for that area, then drive on. I only recall one call there in all the visits I did. I remember talking to some residents and they told me that for shopping often they'd take their boats across the river to the Arizona Lake Havasu side for groceries and such. If not it was a long drive North to Needles or long drive South to Parker Arizona for supplies. This was the area that the comic Sam Kinison was killed in when he was hit head on on that highway. I remember seeing the accident area with all the accident scene makings on the highway for a long time after it had happened.
Anyway, I was supposed to retrace my route and go back through the communities and then drive back home. I did do that a couple of times, but usually I drove up to Needles and had lunch and would "get my kicks on route 66" and take the old highway that bypasses the I-40 back to Barstow. Or I'd take 66 to "Amboy" then take Amboy Road back to Twenty-Nine Palms, and back to Phelan via highway 62 then highway 247 back to Apple Valley and home from there.
This is years before XM Satellite radio and I was really into Books on Tape then, so I loved listening to a great book as I drove these day trips. I ALWAYS carried water and snacks and sometimes my lunch too. Bathroom stops? Just stop about anyplace and water the shrubs, no one would ever be coming to worry about! Miles and miles of open desert.
Even all the years I worked and lived in the valley area it was lots of miles. In the valley you couldn't take your truck home unless you were on-call. (I've talked about on-cal in a previous post) So you'd get to the "Yards", get your truck, gas it up, go to the office get your calls and visit a bit. Then go out and drive. I worked for over 5 years in the west end of the county in the valley, Chino Hills, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, West Fontana, sometimes only a part of these areas would be mine, sometimes they'd all be mine. Just depended on how many people were at work.
Later, in the years before I became a supervisor I enjoyed working the Rancho Cucamonga area the best. We were living in Phelan then so it was a 40 mile one way commute. Stacy had gotten assigned (stuck) at the Devore Shelter so it was drop her off at Devore and drive out to Rancho, work my day there then drive back to Devore in bumper to bumper traffic, get Stacy and go go with the flow of traffic home. At least it was only 4 days a week!
By this time the multimillion dollar animal shelter built by the city was operational and our department was running it and I was able to park the work truck out at the shelter since I usually worked that area. So even with a lot of calls, and I do mean A LOT of calls per day in the Rancho area, you had the shelter right there only about 15 minutes away at most from anywhere in the city so it was really convenient.
This is late 1990's then and I was working Sunday to Wednesdays. I really liked driving in Rancho on Sundays. Especially during nice weather, the real exotic cars would be out getting driven by their owners. Sunday drives. Rolls Royce, Ferrari, you name and somebody in Rancho owned one, or more! North Rancho was a VERY affluent area. I'm sure it's worse now because of all the growth that had been going on before the 'crash'. But I was a supervisor at the main office in San Bernardino by then and Stacy was a Field Officer in the Desert area we lived in. She was making those "hundreds of miles" days. I had a county pick up truck as a supervisor and was able to drive it home so if needed I could always be available to go out after hours. Did a few times too!
OK, so this is long. And I've just touched some of the stories about driving all over San Bernardino County California. Guess I'll type more about again another time!
No, not just a part of the famous quote from "Top Gun", but also the thing, speeding, that EVERYBODY did and probably still does back down in California at Animal Control. But back then, and to 2006 when we left the department, I know there were people in the department who thought they were top guns. They felt that with all their miles driven they were a kin to other professional drivers, and invincible! I know because I felt it too! In a unique county truck, with lights all over it, working in law enforcement and as such we all pretty much got away with stuff like traffic violations and things that the average 'citizen' would have been cited or even arrested for!
When I got bumped up from Animal License Checker to Animal Control Field Officer in the spring of 1983 I got my first assigned truck I drove anywhere from 80 to 300 miles (or more!) a day depending what area I was working. And you just naturally started to keep up with the flow of traffic with all that driving!
In in the early 1980's that was VERY FAST! Ironically not the CRAZY fast it became with the increase of traffic over the years. You could get away with it then as the traffic was almost non existent when away from the L.A., San Bernardino or other city areas. It was easier not to speed when there was no traffic around but then you had so many miles to cover, so you'd speed!
In the early to mid 1980's on the weekends, if there was an "emergency" call in the "outlying areas", the high and low desert areas and the mountains as well, an ACO from the valley had to make the drive. Back then while it was more 24/7 service in the valleys, it was Monday to Friday service with 'emergency' service only on the weekends for the outlying areas. I liked the high desert areas of Hesperia and Apple Valley so since I worked on Saturdays I usually volunteered to go for the long drives. Since I liked to go I became the ACO to go most of the time. It would be one or two calls that could take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours to drive all that way there, get the animal and either take it to the vet or shelter if it wasn't in bad shape. Or sometimes to the shelter after the vet. Back then there was only one animal shelter for the entire 'high desert'. It was (and still is) located in Apple Valley at the North end of town, and was the place for most all animals for the entire Desert area almost out to Barstow. And back then it was all 'Unincorporated County' meaning 'our' area to service, except for the cities of Victorville and Adelanto. Both those cities had small departments and their own ACO's. But they all impounded out at the Apple Valley animal shelter.
It made for a very relaxing last day of my work week for me, these long drives, I really liked to drive and explore back then. Especially if it wasn't my gas and I was getting paid for it! I always stopped at one of the Carl's Junior restaurants in either Hesperia or Victorville. A large Iced Tea and sometimes lunch too after the call was done and I was on my way back to San Bernardino, 40 minutes from the Carl's on East Main street in Hesperia back then.
I remember zipping along on the old two lane main road from the I-15 to Phelan or Wrightwood. Thinking back now, I know it was crazy and I'm extremely lucky just from doing all that to be sitting here and typing this! 60 to 80 MPH on a narrow two lane road that had three very large dips in it and was in OK but not great shape and often rough. It was all nearly deserted roads as I sped to the calls back then. More roads were dirt back then too once off the main drags. Those well used dirt roads were often really bad washboard paths. The trick was when you could, you'd try to get to 25 to 35 MPH and the truck would kind of hit the tops of the washboard and the ride was much improved until you slowed back down. Then it felt like the truck would shake apart. And to be honest they often did just that. Several of the local area ACO's over the years would wind up having truck cages welded, cracked frames, broken suspension parts, and more, all from the rough desert roads. And finding houses? Away from the cities it often could be as bad as "go a mile past the Joshua Tree in the middle of the road and turn left at the third dirt road on the left" Try finding that one! By 2006 it hadn't gotten much better either. Even with the map books just so many small roads weren't in the book!
I remember one time, I was a little over-confident by this time of my desert road driving abilities, I was going about 50 mph on a rough dirt road in Phelan. I was in the one and only Chevy S-10 animal control truck the department ever had, I wish I had photos of it but I never took any! It was my first assigned truck as an ACO. It was the V-6 standard cab S-10 and had a 4 speed manual transmission. I could drive a stick shift and most employees could not so it was offered and I took it. It was a hot rod! Since it was small and with the weight of the cages on the back end where the light bed would have been, it handled like it was on rails! It would very easily go 80 mph and got in the low 20 mpg range when that era full sized GMC's and Chevy's got 8 to 12 mpg, so I could go a long way between fuel stops.
Anyway, I was so intent on reading the dirt road as I sped along I didn't see the paved rise for the railroad tracks that I was approaching FAST! I did see the tracks but too late, so I hit the paved rise still going about 40 and was airborne! At least I'm pretty certain it did all the way airborne. A very scary "Dukes of Hazard" moment! Everything loose was flying in the cab, and I noticed out the side mirror as I landed the spare tire from under the truck bouncing down the dirt road behind me. It still took about 80 yards to get fully stopped. WOW! Was what I remember thinking! No real damage other then to my nerves, I went back and got the spare and put it in a cage and drove on, a LOT slower though! The " County Yards" where all the trucks were repaired, put the spare back up in it's holder under the rear end. How did it fall out I was asked? I had "no idea!"
I recall many times driving fast out the old Route 66, National Trails Highway, from Victorville to Barstow. Especially in the later years it was often much faster to go that route over fighting traffic on the freeway, especially on Fridays or Sundays with all the Las Vegas traffic going (Fridays) and coming (Sundays).
After the community of Helendale, National Trails Highway was mostly fairly wide and gentle turns so it was easy to speed along to get you to Barstow and Hinkley and calls in that area.
Longest regular drives for me, and these did take all day, were when I was living and working in the desert in the 1990's and I was picked to go out weekly for a couple of months to the San Bernardino county outpost of Big River. This was an area of homes situated on tribal lands along the Colorado River a few miles south-west and in California across the river from Parker Arizona. The residents in this community had 99 year leases for their properties but could never own them. But it was still San Bernardino county and when the few residents there complained about dog problems to the county board of supervisors, the department said they'd provide "service". So that service became someone driving out one day a week to their area and patrol and address any complaint calls that came in during the days between visits.
I was told to be 'on the road' and heading out that way by 6 am on the days I drove out. This was usually about a 4 hour, one way, drive from our home in Phelan to Big River. I actually only recall handling just a few calls in that area. Usually I'd drive all the way out to Big River, patrol (drive around) in the Big River community so I'd been seen there for about half an hour or so. This was a small community and I was going over the same areas more than once to stay there that long!
Then I'd drive up on the California side of the Colorado river on the San Bernardino county side of Lake Havasu, to a community called Havasu Landing. Same thing there, patrol through the area, do any calls that came in for that area, then drive on. I only recall one call there in all the visits I did. I remember talking to some residents and they told me that for shopping often they'd take their boats across the river to the Arizona Lake Havasu side for groceries and such. If not it was a long drive North to Needles or long drive South to Parker Arizona for supplies. This was the area that the comic Sam Kinison was killed in when he was hit head on on that highway. I remember seeing the accident area with all the accident scene makings on the highway for a long time after it had happened.
Anyway, I was supposed to retrace my route and go back through the communities and then drive back home. I did do that a couple of times, but usually I drove up to Needles and had lunch and would "get my kicks on route 66" and take the old highway that bypasses the I-40 back to Barstow. Or I'd take 66 to "Amboy" then take Amboy Road back to Twenty-Nine Palms, and back to Phelan via highway 62 then highway 247 back to Apple Valley and home from there.
This is years before XM Satellite radio and I was really into Books on Tape then, so I loved listening to a great book as I drove these day trips. I ALWAYS carried water and snacks and sometimes my lunch too. Bathroom stops? Just stop about anyplace and water the shrubs, no one would ever be coming to worry about! Miles and miles of open desert.
Even all the years I worked and lived in the valley area it was lots of miles. In the valley you couldn't take your truck home unless you were on-call. (I've talked about on-cal in a previous post) So you'd get to the "Yards", get your truck, gas it up, go to the office get your calls and visit a bit. Then go out and drive. I worked for over 5 years in the west end of the county in the valley, Chino Hills, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, West Fontana, sometimes only a part of these areas would be mine, sometimes they'd all be mine. Just depended on how many people were at work.
Later, in the years before I became a supervisor I enjoyed working the Rancho Cucamonga area the best. We were living in Phelan then so it was a 40 mile one way commute. Stacy had gotten assigned (stuck) at the Devore Shelter so it was drop her off at Devore and drive out to Rancho, work my day there then drive back to Devore in bumper to bumper traffic, get Stacy and go go with the flow of traffic home. At least it was only 4 days a week!
By this time the multimillion dollar animal shelter built by the city was operational and our department was running it and I was able to park the work truck out at the shelter since I usually worked that area. So even with a lot of calls, and I do mean A LOT of calls per day in the Rancho area, you had the shelter right there only about 15 minutes away at most from anywhere in the city so it was really convenient.
This is late 1990's then and I was working Sunday to Wednesdays. I really liked driving in Rancho on Sundays. Especially during nice weather, the real exotic cars would be out getting driven by their owners. Sunday drives. Rolls Royce, Ferrari, you name and somebody in Rancho owned one, or more! North Rancho was a VERY affluent area. I'm sure it's worse now because of all the growth that had been going on before the 'crash'. But I was a supervisor at the main office in San Bernardino by then and Stacy was a Field Officer in the Desert area we lived in. She was making those "hundreds of miles" days. I had a county pick up truck as a supervisor and was able to drive it home so if needed I could always be available to go out after hours. Did a few times too!
OK, so this is long. And I've just touched some of the stories about driving all over San Bernardino County California. Guess I'll type more about again another time!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)