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
Thursday, April 1, 2010
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!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Animal Control on 'Old' TV
Its been a long time since the last post. Life's been happening, a lot of travel for me the last couple of months!
Today I was just going through shows during lunch at HULU.com and I came across the episode from the 1970's TV show "Emergency" titled "905-WILD".
I vaguely recalled the episode, I used to watch Emergency with my family, it was junior high age for me back then. I've probably seen it since it was shown 34 years ago, "Emergency" was rerun at various times on different L.A. TV stations long before TV Land and the Internet. I just remembered something about Tigers on that specific episode and that it had been an attempt by Jack Web to 'spin off' another show by highlighting an organization like Animal Control as he'd successfully done with Paramedics for "Emergency!" Didn't work for Animal Control though and that late episode of the 1974/75 season didn't go anywhere.
It was interesting to see again though! I didn't remember Mark Harmon, now famous as "Gibbs" on "NCIS" was in the episode, as the partner of another actor I remember as being in many of Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" movies from that same general era. It is very typical Jack Webb of the late 60's early 70's like "Dragnet" and "Adam 12" were like (I liked those shows too!), the cute kid, the nice old man, everybody has a short speech, and lots of 'looks' as things happen. Since it happens through Emergency, there's all the show regulars, Gage, DeSoto, all the Doctors and Nurse 'Dixie' at "Rampart General". There's even a supposed surgery on a pygmy goat that at the end doesn't even have any evidence of anything being done to it! But the 'cute' kid and 'kindly' old man don't notice, they're just glad the hospital 'saved' their little goat. Of course at the expense of contaminating a hospital and who exactly was going to pay for all the stuff used for the goat?
Oh well, it was TV in 1975. Look at it from that perspective and enjoy! Watch it RIGHT NOW at www.hulu.com, it's season 4 episode 22 in their collection. The site says it will be available until September next year (2010) so you've got time. Mark Harmon looks so YOUNG! Beatles haircut and all, I wonder if he remembers doing the show?
Other than the acting I did like seeing animal control trucks just like what San Bernardino county had when I started in 1981. Back then though our trucks were all shades of browns and tans, didn't go 'all white' trucks until the mid 1980's. But in 1981 there were a couple of Dodges with the same cage boxes and high mounted rear spare tire. Thing I remember most is that those early 1980's Dodges would lock up and slide sideways in a heartbeat! No anti-lock yet!
Now of course with Animal Planet and all the news events that have and continue to still occur, public awareness of animal control is way up there. In 1975 on that show and through most of the years of my own career nobody really knew about the job except those people that called or who were "regulars". I remember that lack of knowledge made it great for weekends and holidays back then. Nobody knew much about animal control let alone we worked 7 days a week and 365 days a year. So back then you'd work your butt off during the week and be able to relax on the weekend, Saturdays for me, and get caught up with calls to check back on or just plain have an easy day. Saturdays were often the day of the shift you could have a chance to visit with the co-workers without getting calls or having to hide from the supervisors since back then there usually weren't any on then. Or it gave a person the opportunity to visit with friends while getting paid for it. Almost everyone that came to visit with me on my days off was working one of their regular days!
I know of many people that only visited with friends and such while at work, why not? You didn't have anything to do right then and you not only got paid for being there but it didn't cost you any of your own gas or time on your days off! It did get abused though, even worse than what I've just described. Shopping while at work, doing Laundry while at work, you know- drive up to the laundromat and unload your clothes out of a cage and go to it! Actually a person did get written up for doing that, now years later and she's still there, a supervisor. And she used to do worse than that when I was still there. She'd set up early morning patrols and ride out with an ACO to some of the far flung places in San Bernardino County, she'd sleep all the way there then they'd patrol a hour or so then use the 4X4 abilities of the trucks to explore for ROCKS!
Her county supplied pick-up truck was always loaded down with rocks or things she'd find while driving around the desert.
Don't be shocked reading that, this was the 1980's and you can't do that anymore. All the trucks have GPS monitoring (for this?) and you have to account for almost all of your work hours now a days.
Yes, I was lucky, and I remember thinking so then, it was a great job! Now I feel like myself and the friends I had then were in the 'Golden Era' of San Bernardino County Animal Control.
Tad
Today I was just going through shows during lunch at HULU.com and I came across the episode from the 1970's TV show "Emergency" titled "905-WILD".
I vaguely recalled the episode, I used to watch Emergency with my family, it was junior high age for me back then. I've probably seen it since it was shown 34 years ago, "Emergency" was rerun at various times on different L.A. TV stations long before TV Land and the Internet. I just remembered something about Tigers on that specific episode and that it had been an attempt by Jack Web to 'spin off' another show by highlighting an organization like Animal Control as he'd successfully done with Paramedics for "Emergency!" Didn't work for Animal Control though and that late episode of the 1974/75 season didn't go anywhere.
It was interesting to see again though! I didn't remember Mark Harmon, now famous as "Gibbs" on "NCIS" was in the episode, as the partner of another actor I remember as being in many of Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" movies from that same general era. It is very typical Jack Webb of the late 60's early 70's like "Dragnet" and "Adam 12" were like (I liked those shows too!), the cute kid, the nice old man, everybody has a short speech, and lots of 'looks' as things happen. Since it happens through Emergency, there's all the show regulars, Gage, DeSoto, all the Doctors and Nurse 'Dixie' at "Rampart General". There's even a supposed surgery on a pygmy goat that at the end doesn't even have any evidence of anything being done to it! But the 'cute' kid and 'kindly' old man don't notice, they're just glad the hospital 'saved' their little goat. Of course at the expense of contaminating a hospital and who exactly was going to pay for all the stuff used for the goat?
Oh well, it was TV in 1975. Look at it from that perspective and enjoy! Watch it RIGHT NOW at www.hulu.com, it's season 4 episode 22 in their collection. The site says it will be available until September next year (2010) so you've got time. Mark Harmon looks so YOUNG! Beatles haircut and all, I wonder if he remembers doing the show?
Other than the acting I did like seeing animal control trucks just like what San Bernardino county had when I started in 1981. Back then though our trucks were all shades of browns and tans, didn't go 'all white' trucks until the mid 1980's. But in 1981 there were a couple of Dodges with the same cage boxes and high mounted rear spare tire. Thing I remember most is that those early 1980's Dodges would lock up and slide sideways in a heartbeat! No anti-lock yet!
Now of course with Animal Planet and all the news events that have and continue to still occur, public awareness of animal control is way up there. In 1975 on that show and through most of the years of my own career nobody really knew about the job except those people that called or who were "regulars". I remember that lack of knowledge made it great for weekends and holidays back then. Nobody knew much about animal control let alone we worked 7 days a week and 365 days a year. So back then you'd work your butt off during the week and be able to relax on the weekend, Saturdays for me, and get caught up with calls to check back on or just plain have an easy day. Saturdays were often the day of the shift you could have a chance to visit with the co-workers without getting calls or having to hide from the supervisors since back then there usually weren't any on then. Or it gave a person the opportunity to visit with friends while getting paid for it. Almost everyone that came to visit with me on my days off was working one of their regular days!
I know of many people that only visited with friends and such while at work, why not? You didn't have anything to do right then and you not only got paid for being there but it didn't cost you any of your own gas or time on your days off! It did get abused though, even worse than what I've just described. Shopping while at work, doing Laundry while at work, you know- drive up to the laundromat and unload your clothes out of a cage and go to it! Actually a person did get written up for doing that, now years later and she's still there, a supervisor. And she used to do worse than that when I was still there. She'd set up early morning patrols and ride out with an ACO to some of the far flung places in San Bernardino County, she'd sleep all the way there then they'd patrol a hour or so then use the 4X4 abilities of the trucks to explore for ROCKS!
Her county supplied pick-up truck was always loaded down with rocks or things she'd find while driving around the desert.
Don't be shocked reading that, this was the 1980's and you can't do that anymore. All the trucks have GPS monitoring (for this?) and you have to account for almost all of your work hours now a days.
Yes, I was lucky, and I remember thinking so then, it was a great job! Now I feel like myself and the friends I had then were in the 'Golden Era' of San Bernardino County Animal Control.
Tad
Friday, October 30, 2009
It's been awhile!
Wow last post on this blog was back in August!!
It has been a pretty busy last couple of months, but I do want to get back to working on these recollections.
In fact next Monday November 2nd, will be 28 years to the same day that I'd started with San Bernardino County Animal Control. Taking a job that I thought I might enjoy "until something better came along!"
And so around 25 years later I guess nothing else much better came along until we decided to retire early and 'get outta Dodge' before the California economy really tanked as bad as it has to this point.
Not that there were not any options over those decades, I had applied and interviewed for two other animal control agencies over the years. I was looking at getting to a new area of California back then. In the overall scheme of life as I sit here in Northern Idaho, I surely can not complain about where I've ended up, so far! But back in the mid 1980's I was looking at other options.
I had first applied to work for Merced County animal control. I wound up interviewing all the way to the end. Three trips from the San Bernardino area to the small county near Fresno. I was able to fly myself there twice (I'm a private pilot) but had to drive once because of bad weather and fog in the big San Joaquin valley.
I ultimately turned them down because they wanted me to work for them at what would have worked out to be an almost $600.00 a month cut in pay!!! Yes, I was told I'd get much of it back with on-call and overtime, and the old story of how it "costs less to live here" but it was just too much of a cut so I had to tell them "thanks, but no thanks".
Second and last place I tried was for a position with Santa Barbara County. I had two of the interviews there, I think I might have enjoyed living in that area, especially at the time. Although as crowded and drought and fire prone as it has become and with the fore mentioned current economy troubles of the state, I sure wouldn't like it now! I'd always liked going through the area or staying there to visit. I flew myself up to the Goleta Airport and rented a car for the final interview, made it kind of an expensive afternoon, but there, the interview and back in just 3 1/2 hours instead of at least a full day for the round trip.
I've always felt like I lost the job because I just wasn't sure of their local ordinances on the oral interview.
Maybe, but as I found out when I was in on interviews for new hires at our department during my years as a supervisor, it could be as simple as looks, attitude, or just 'holding the job' for an employee to move up in, that could keep a hopeful outsider from getting the job. I know, it was always supposed to be on that persons merit, more often than not it just flat wasn't! It was all FIRST IMPRESSIONS!
I know of a few people that interviewed fantastically only to be lousy when they actually started! One still works there, should have NEVER passed probation, but her supervisor became her "bud" and gave her all kinds of special breaks just because she liked her.
Twenty minutes was all they got, so it was first impressions, a resume that sometimes was just plain unbelievable, yet most of the time people were decided on right at that time, right after they'd left the interview room. They were kept on pins and needles for up to a week, but the decision had been made then.
Our daughter Laura kept up an animal control career until just recently when she was hired on with AT&T. She likes animal control work much better but after working six days a week or more, for over two years at minimum wadge and in honestly lousy working conditions for Scott County in Iowa, she just had to go to someplace with 'normal' hours and better pay, and finally landed the job.
Her last field call though cost her a lot, it was an after hours or on-call response to impound a couple of aggressive pit bulls that had been contained in an RP's (Reporting Parties) yard. She arrived, the local P.D. (police department) officer had cleared the scene, Laura attempted to handle the call herself without adequate lighting or any backup people (she wasn't allowed to call for backup by her supervisor!), and in her attempt she was badly bitten by the male of the two dogs. Severe bite wounds to her left calf, she'll have very bad scarring from incident. And so far the department there is giving her problems over what is clearly a workers comp claim for her hospital visit after she'd gotten the dogs and impounded them at the shelter!!
I really don't know of anyone in an animal career that hasn't been bitten by something! I had 5 bites over my career, seems like they all got progressively worse to the last time I was bitten on a Sunday back in July of 2000. At that call I slipped on wet grass at the residence and an aggressive Rottweiler that they'd called about got me on the head while I was down on the ground. 13 staples across the back of my head left a nice scar and a hope that I never go bald!
Stacy was bitten a few times too. Her worst was at a call in the desert where the dog ran right at her from under a garage door as it was being opened and attacked her, bit her on the inside of her thigh. It would have been much worse had she not had another ACO there to assist. He was able to get the dog after it bit her.
I knew employees of S.B. County that had good lawyers and would try to sue the dog owner anytime they were bitten. One guy went to the Bahama's on vacation twice on his booty from bites to his 'bootie'!
The one time I tried that, I got an attorney that just told me it was "part of the job" and that was that.
Until next time, and maybe not so long! Tad
It has been a pretty busy last couple of months, but I do want to get back to working on these recollections.
In fact next Monday November 2nd, will be 28 years to the same day that I'd started with San Bernardino County Animal Control. Taking a job that I thought I might enjoy "until something better came along!"
And so around 25 years later I guess nothing else much better came along until we decided to retire early and 'get outta Dodge' before the California economy really tanked as bad as it has to this point.
Not that there were not any options over those decades, I had applied and interviewed for two other animal control agencies over the years. I was looking at getting to a new area of California back then. In the overall scheme of life as I sit here in Northern Idaho, I surely can not complain about where I've ended up, so far! But back in the mid 1980's I was looking at other options.
I had first applied to work for Merced County animal control. I wound up interviewing all the way to the end. Three trips from the San Bernardino area to the small county near Fresno. I was able to fly myself there twice (I'm a private pilot) but had to drive once because of bad weather and fog in the big San Joaquin valley.
I ultimately turned them down because they wanted me to work for them at what would have worked out to be an almost $600.00 a month cut in pay!!! Yes, I was told I'd get much of it back with on-call and overtime, and the old story of how it "costs less to live here" but it was just too much of a cut so I had to tell them "thanks, but no thanks".
Second and last place I tried was for a position with Santa Barbara County. I had two of the interviews there, I think I might have enjoyed living in that area, especially at the time. Although as crowded and drought and fire prone as it has become and with the fore mentioned current economy troubles of the state, I sure wouldn't like it now! I'd always liked going through the area or staying there to visit. I flew myself up to the Goleta Airport and rented a car for the final interview, made it kind of an expensive afternoon, but there, the interview and back in just 3 1/2 hours instead of at least a full day for the round trip.
I've always felt like I lost the job because I just wasn't sure of their local ordinances on the oral interview.
Maybe, but as I found out when I was in on interviews for new hires at our department during my years as a supervisor, it could be as simple as looks, attitude, or just 'holding the job' for an employee to move up in, that could keep a hopeful outsider from getting the job. I know, it was always supposed to be on that persons merit, more often than not it just flat wasn't! It was all FIRST IMPRESSIONS!
I know of a few people that interviewed fantastically only to be lousy when they actually started! One still works there, should have NEVER passed probation, but her supervisor became her "bud" and gave her all kinds of special breaks just because she liked her.
Twenty minutes was all they got, so it was first impressions, a resume that sometimes was just plain unbelievable, yet most of the time people were decided on right at that time, right after they'd left the interview room. They were kept on pins and needles for up to a week, but the decision had been made then.
Our daughter Laura kept up an animal control career until just recently when she was hired on with AT&T. She likes animal control work much better but after working six days a week or more, for over two years at minimum wadge and in honestly lousy working conditions for Scott County in Iowa, she just had to go to someplace with 'normal' hours and better pay, and finally landed the job.
Her last field call though cost her a lot, it was an after hours or on-call response to impound a couple of aggressive pit bulls that had been contained in an RP's (Reporting Parties) yard. She arrived, the local P.D. (police department) officer had cleared the scene, Laura attempted to handle the call herself without adequate lighting or any backup people (she wasn't allowed to call for backup by her supervisor!), and in her attempt she was badly bitten by the male of the two dogs. Severe bite wounds to her left calf, she'll have very bad scarring from incident. And so far the department there is giving her problems over what is clearly a workers comp claim for her hospital visit after she'd gotten the dogs and impounded them at the shelter!!
I really don't know of anyone in an animal career that hasn't been bitten by something! I had 5 bites over my career, seems like they all got progressively worse to the last time I was bitten on a Sunday back in July of 2000. At that call I slipped on wet grass at the residence and an aggressive Rottweiler that they'd called about got me on the head while I was down on the ground. 13 staples across the back of my head left a nice scar and a hope that I never go bald!
Stacy was bitten a few times too. Her worst was at a call in the desert where the dog ran right at her from under a garage door as it was being opened and attacked her, bit her on the inside of her thigh. It would have been much worse had she not had another ACO there to assist. He was able to get the dog after it bit her.
I knew employees of S.B. County that had good lawyers and would try to sue the dog owner anytime they were bitten. One guy went to the Bahama's on vacation twice on his booty from bites to his 'bootie'!
The one time I tried that, I got an attorney that just told me it was "part of the job" and that was that.
Until next time, and maybe not so long! Tad
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
My first thirty seconds of fame
Still on my License Checker era, I recall when I was shown in taped and aired scenes of the department for the CBS channel 2 evening news. This was in late 1981 or early 1982 during the height of the first Pit Bull hysteria that was sweeping all across the country at the time. Locally in the city of Colton a mail carrier had been bitten by a pit bull and had died from the subsequent blood poisoning he had developed. It was all over the local news but had also made the national news.
Pat English, then the program manager for the department wanted to jump on the publicity bandwagon of the Colton event. Since we didn't have the city of Colton, it was decided that the closest area with a bad loose dog problem to make a show of was a county community called Bloomington. It was always a bad problem area before, during and after this time. Pat decided to have a maximum enforcement effort and contacted the local and L.A. area news stations to announce the upcoming date.
The city of Fontana supplied their one and only ACO and it was arranged to have almost the entire field staff on hand. So the big day (morning) and we all met at 5 am at the main office in San Bernardino and all convoyed out the 30 minute drive to Bloomington. All the ACO's would be patrolling the streets of the area, all us license checkers including our supervisor were to start checking licenses at every residence beginning at 6 am, the earliest we could legally 'disturb the peace' by knocking on the doors of the residences.
No breaks, no excuses, any dogs out loose were to be picked up and we were told "license or cite" by the big boss himself. He as well as many of the staff were hoping to get their activities taped so Pat was actually there and in a new suit and there were quite a few cleaned and pressed uniforms of the ACO's and new permed hair styles on several of the women License Checkers.
We all got out there and of course at first nothings out loose. CBS had sent out a video crew and they got The supervisor Lynda and the people with her on tape waking up some residents to check for licenses. Since there weren't any loose dogs much of the early video was us license checkers going house to house checking the licenses. I was taped citing a guy that I normally would have given a break to, he answered all the right questions so normally I would have given him the chance to find his paperwork, but that morning, at that time he got a ticket. Later on some dogs were spotted out and chased, that made for some good shots I guess. I was taped again when I was helping ACO Ed Stevens loading a caught dog into his truck cages. I was able to save it on the VCR that evening and years later transferred it to DVD so I could look at it occasionally. Ah the memories!
Behind the scenes of that morning, well yes Pat had been taped giving his big speech about the job being done etc, CBS just didn't use it! He was extremely pissed off about it for quite a while. Pat was very much the 80's yuppie boss with a "my s*** doesn't stink" attitude. He was great for getting contracts and equipment for the department, he was really terrible for working with the employees. The one thing that unified the department was the hatred of him as our boss!
In 1985 he was forced to resign (fired) for misappropriation of funds. He'd been living the high life on the county's expense and it caught up with him.
That morning I'd ridden out to Bloomington in a little Datsun Animal Control Truck with my License Checker team leader Bob, and on the way out while he was driving he sat on the radio microphone while he was talking about how much he'd liked to see several of the female employees naked and more! It was broadcast to all the vehicles, luckily for him Pat must have been too busy talking and didn't hear it or Bob would really have been in hot water!
I no longer recall how many dogs actually were picked up, it wasn't many. For a few years if any early morning patrols were done, Bloomington was almost always the first place done.
There never was a "maximum enforcement" done with the whole department again though.
Pat English, then the program manager for the department wanted to jump on the publicity bandwagon of the Colton event. Since we didn't have the city of Colton, it was decided that the closest area with a bad loose dog problem to make a show of was a county community called Bloomington. It was always a bad problem area before, during and after this time. Pat decided to have a maximum enforcement effort and contacted the local and L.A. area news stations to announce the upcoming date.
The city of Fontana supplied their one and only ACO and it was arranged to have almost the entire field staff on hand. So the big day (morning) and we all met at 5 am at the main office in San Bernardino and all convoyed out the 30 minute drive to Bloomington. All the ACO's would be patrolling the streets of the area, all us license checkers including our supervisor were to start checking licenses at every residence beginning at 6 am, the earliest we could legally 'disturb the peace' by knocking on the doors of the residences.
No breaks, no excuses, any dogs out loose were to be picked up and we were told "license or cite" by the big boss himself. He as well as many of the staff were hoping to get their activities taped so Pat was actually there and in a new suit and there were quite a few cleaned and pressed uniforms of the ACO's and new permed hair styles on several of the women License Checkers.
We all got out there and of course at first nothings out loose. CBS had sent out a video crew and they got The supervisor Lynda and the people with her on tape waking up some residents to check for licenses. Since there weren't any loose dogs much of the early video was us license checkers going house to house checking the licenses. I was taped citing a guy that I normally would have given a break to, he answered all the right questions so normally I would have given him the chance to find his paperwork, but that morning, at that time he got a ticket. Later on some dogs were spotted out and chased, that made for some good shots I guess. I was taped again when I was helping ACO Ed Stevens loading a caught dog into his truck cages. I was able to save it on the VCR that evening and years later transferred it to DVD so I could look at it occasionally. Ah the memories!
Behind the scenes of that morning, well yes Pat had been taped giving his big speech about the job being done etc, CBS just didn't use it! He was extremely pissed off about it for quite a while. Pat was very much the 80's yuppie boss with a "my s*** doesn't stink" attitude. He was great for getting contracts and equipment for the department, he was really terrible for working with the employees. The one thing that unified the department was the hatred of him as our boss!
In 1985 he was forced to resign (fired) for misappropriation of funds. He'd been living the high life on the county's expense and it caught up with him.
That morning I'd ridden out to Bloomington in a little Datsun Animal Control Truck with my License Checker team leader Bob, and on the way out while he was driving he sat on the radio microphone while he was talking about how much he'd liked to see several of the female employees naked and more! It was broadcast to all the vehicles, luckily for him Pat must have been too busy talking and didn't hear it or Bob would really have been in hot water!
I no longer recall how many dogs actually were picked up, it wasn't many. For a few years if any early morning patrols were done, Bloomington was almost always the first place done.
There never was a "maximum enforcement" done with the whole department again though.
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