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All In Adams - Serving the Community: Animal Management
16 Plays12 days ago
In this episode, we sit down with the Adams County Animal Management team to talk about their day to day work, the calls they respond to, and how they help keep the community safe.
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Transcript
Introduction to Adams County Podcast
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to All In Adams, the official podcast of Adams County Government. where we're all in for our residents, our employees, and our community. So whether you live here, work here, or you just want to know more about what makes Adams County a great place to be, thanks for tuning in. We're all in, Adams.
Meet the Animal Control Team
00:00:22
Speaker
We are back with another episode of the All in Adams podcast. My name is Carson Forsman. I'm a communication supervisor with Adams County, and we are joined with our animal control or animal management team and our animal control officers here.
00:00:36
Speaker
with Adams County. I'll let you introduce yourself first and then we'll get a few questions for you. Excited. Yeah, I'm Officer Lewis. I've been with AMO for three and a half years. actually started with the county six years ago with the shelter.
00:00:52
Speaker
the FTO for the team. That's awesome. I'm Natalie Clark. I'm the supervisor over animal animal management. Yeah, I love it. Well, thanks so much for coming in. And we are celebrating our officers this week as this episode drops. So we are excited to have them in studio just to kind of chat about your day-to-day and the work that you all do. Kind of, um
Unexpected Challenges in Animal Control
00:01:11
Speaker
Officer Lewis, take us kind of through...
00:01:13
Speaker
What's a day look like for you? I know it can be probably different, right? but Yeah, yeah. it kind of depends on the day, but our average calls are going to be a lot of cats and dogs, like strays, welfare checks, noise complaints. um What's cool about being with the county is we also get to go out east, do like livestock, horses, picked up like a 300-pound pig running out large. You never know what you're going to get. um We do some like sick, injured wildlife. So I've had like pelican, egret, if you've ever heard of that. Oh, my. ah Hawks, lot of geese, stuff like that. Yeah. Had chinchilla on a a pathway. I was like, did they badly mispronounce chihuahua? But sure enough, straight chinchilla. wow. Yeah, like a Nile monitor, like a six-foot-long lizard, and someone's behind someone's washer and dryer. So kind of never know what you're going to get, so it can be exciting.
00:02:06
Speaker
Yeah, so the calls can be kind of different, right? What's so like the craziest call or, I guess, animal, you've talked about a couple, but that you've come in contact with in Adams County? yeah Yeah, I definitely didn't expect um the giant lizard in someone's ah fine a wash and dryer. So I had a trainee, and he's you know like, what's the plan? Usually I can be like, well, here's ABC, depending on how it goes. But some of them, it's like we show up, analyze the situation, and solve the problem. Like, there's your plan, so... mean, yeah, Natalie, you're the supervisor with the team. Is it never a dull moment? I mean, never yeah, talk to me about that little bit. They run call to call from eight in the morning until five o'clock at night and they're on call after hours. So they're available for emergencies from 5 PM until 8 AM m getting called out in the middle of the night for house fires or severe animal attacks to
Seasonal Challenges in Animal Control
00:02:57
Speaker
humans. Like the paperwork load for the staff is enormous.
00:03:02
Speaker
They stay busy for Is it different throughout different times of the year? Like what's, I mean, we're entering the spring, like, or is it, can it just kind of range for you all? This year, you know, supposedly we get snow in Colorado, but this year, not so much. Let's stay busy. um Usually like when it gets warmer, you'll have more dogs at large, more bites, just with more people out stuff like that. When kids come home from school, there's more doors getting left open, dogs slip out, that sort of thing.
00:03:28
Speaker
Obviously in the winter we'll get more welfare checks on animals out in the cold, stuff like that. But yeah, this year's been different. Definitely different. You talked a little bit about working with the animal shelter, river animal shelter a little bit and then transitioning into this role. What's that been kind of like for you? curious.
00:03:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely a different, like at the shelter, it's a very like compounding stress because it's just day after day. So many animals coming in, um dealing with so many people. Whereas here had kind of One week it'll be chaos. You just kind of take it one call at a time. Some weeks it's a little slower. You can kind of regroup. So it's a different kind of stress. I mean, you get a call going down to, you know, aggressive large dogs. You don't really know what to expect. So you're kind of, you know, trying to prepare in your mind, but you don't exactly know how it's going to be. Whereas the
Stress and Diversity in Animal Management
00:04:19
Speaker
shelter, you pretty much know what's going on day to day. Yeah.
00:04:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's less of a, gotta be safe out there. Right. Yeah. Like talk to me about that. And like some of these animals like are in different like stresses and whatnot. And how do you, how do you handle that? I mean, obviously it's different each situation, but.
00:04:36
Speaker
Yeah. um So obviously we're trained to have our priorities. Like we have to keep us and our team safe and the public and then do what we can. So for example, like a dog in traffic, if you're on the interstate or whatever, it's going to be little dicey. You have to think quick. Like you don't want to create a crash. You want to get the dog out of the road, but you want to prioritize keeping the citizens safe, keeping yourself and your team safe. So Picking your spots to where if it's not safe to jump out of your truck, you don't want to be just flying off the handle. You got to, you know, know what you're doing, know when you're safe, you know, don't, don't be a hero, but you also can't, you know, cower in the face of some things. So kind of finding that balance and knowing what you're doing.
00:05:23
Speaker
Adams County such a big county, right? You talked a little bit about like out east, right? That's so much different than in the urban areas and close to the denver Denver metro area. and does that make it like Talk to me about that. Is it pretty interesting for you all just the diversity of different things that you come in contact with? It kind of keeps day-to-day different, right? yeah Yeah, I think it's fun, and I've done a lot of training with equine stuff, so I like doing the horses and having that expertise, so it's fun getting the variety. like...
00:05:51
Speaker
even like the people out east are different because they're like oh like who are you kind of deal it's like they don't see us as much we don't get out there as much obviously but um yeah there are different types of calls out there as opposed to when it's pretty cramped um obviously most of what we do is more in the Denver side of things sure sure Natalie how big is the team talk to me about your team We have five officers. We are finally officially fully staffed, which is great. This team is rocking it. and
00:06:22
Speaker
Especially Lindsay. She's been here from the get. yeah i Trying to stabilize out the team and get everybody trained up to where they need to be. So we're rocking it with five officers out on the road right now. yeah How long have you been with the county in your role? A couple of years now, right? Two and a half years. yeah yeah Prior to that, I've got roughly 16 years with various municipalities throughout Adams County.
00:06:43
Speaker
Within animal control? Mm-hmm. Oh, wow. So how does Adams County shape up to the other municipalities? not You don't got to name drop them, right? Right. I'm curious. I love the day diversity. Okay.
00:06:55
Speaker
And I'll get out on the road when I can and help the team out. um I love going out east. I mean, it's an hour drive one way, but... You know, the things that we get to see out there was actually just out east on on Monday, um east of Strasburg and driving back, being able to see like the pronghorn sheep and the birds the you know the birds of prey that are flying around out there. and And you see it every now and then on the urban side of the county. But it's kind of nice to see it kind of out in the open with nobody around. So I do appreciate that.
00:07:29
Speaker
what do What other county departments do you guys lean on? Obviously, I'm sure you work at the sheriff's office. um Sheriff's office, health department, park rangers. Shelter staff is obviously a huge one. Huge.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah. And we work really good with the other municipal partners within the county, too. Everybody chips in and helps us out just as much as we help them out. Are you guys out of the new facility, the parks facility now or no?
00:07:53
Speaker
The new park? Eventually. You're not there quite yet. In progress. We will be there by the end of April. Yeah. And obviously can talk little bit too about the animal shelter, right? Having that facility. Does that help you guys out too in the technology that's there and whatnot? I mean, I started back at the old shelter where it's just a warehouse with candles. Yeah. I remember it. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a much better setup. Like the cats can't hear the dogs going nuts. You get natural lighting coming in.
00:08:19
Speaker
um Obviously it was quite the transition, but now it's pretty seamless. They just set up the new barn. don't know you're familiar. saw that yeah Yeah. They had a peacock in there. Check out. Yeah. So place to put all the goats.
00:08:33
Speaker
young Talk to me about your love for this, right? Is it animals? I take it, right? Why do why do you do what you do? I'll start with you, Officer Lewis. Yeah, yeah. I started with the animals, obviously, less than the law enforcement aspect. So, um working with animals, and there's always so much to learn. and Like, you know,
00:08:53
Speaker
get the basics on, you know, dog cat behavior. But then, like I said, there's all the equine training that I went through. um we had snakes that we had to handle one time. So you get a wide variety of, yeah, there's always something to learn. Like, my old boss used to say, even four years into the job, you're going to come across something you've never seen. And you're always going to learn something in your career. So I find that exciting.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah. The variety. What about you, Natalie? I've always had a knack for public service. Um, I've actually worked in like the law enforcement realm of public service and I've been in that realm for two years.
00:09:37
Speaker
And 19 of it has been in animal management. um I got a taste
Advice on Handling Stray Animals
00:09:42
Speaker
of it years ago and absolutely fell in love with the community contact, the animal contact, the constant knowledge. i mean, I'm 19 years deep into my career and still walk away days going, oh my gosh, I learned like five new things today. So that's that's always fun and exciting for me.
00:10:00
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm sure it's fun for you to see your team grow as ah they've developed and even just taking them under your wing too has been, has been fun. Giving them tasks and projects and sending them to training that I can see them growing. And it's so super exciting.
00:10:15
Speaker
supervisor that I point down a road that they need to go and every single one of them just jump to it and take off. Yeah. Has your team grown throughout the years that you've been in this role for three years or have you always had? It's always been five, but staffing has been pretty unstable the last couple of years. um So I kind of, when I took over, I started overhauling the team.
00:10:34
Speaker
Um, and we're there we've done a phenomenal job. and Lindsay's been by my side the whole time. Which is great. I'm helping you out here. We're in this until we retire. I've told the team I'm the senior officer. It's my turn to leave. So y'all are in it for 20 more years till I get to go. Right. Right. Amazing.
00:10:54
Speaker
Any, like, let's talk about tips for residents, right? If they see a loss pad or something, right. What, what do what do you advise them to do? I mean, call us would be a good thing. I know like sometimes the animal will appear friendly, but, um you know, if it's an unknown animal, you don't necessarily want to run after it and risk getting bit. I know, you know, like if a dog's hit by a car, people want to rush in and we see people get bit, not because the dog is mean. It's just scared. It's a stressful situation. So, um yeah, I recommend calling us and making sure everyone's safe that way.
00:11:31
Speaker
Yeah, what what can what can residents do to help you all
00:11:36
Speaker
Get us involved. Yeah, right? Yeah,
Bite Prevention and Public Education
00:11:38
Speaker
like when in doubt, calling. Get us involved. Let the professionals do their job. Yeah, we'll get calls that are like, it's running at large every day for the past year. And it's like, well, this is the first we've heard of it, so we can't really step in and intervene if we don't know what's going on. So trying to get details if they can, you know, breed, color, whatever they notice, what direction it's headed, the more details they can get us and the better we can assess the situation while we're driving out there, the better.
00:12:07
Speaker
Love it. think that's all I had. I mean, I just appreciate you guys coming in. I've been wanting to get you on the podcast and ah we're celebrating, ah of course, animal, what is it? Animal Control Officers Appreciation Week. Say that 10 times, right? No, but no, seriously, we appreciate all that you guys do for Adams County, our residents. know it can be a challenging job sometimes, but definitely very rewarding.
00:12:29
Speaker
And um again, let's celebrate. Appreciate your service. Thanks so much. Thank you. One thing? One thing? Yes. Yes. There's education stuff that I forgot to throw in. yes. Throw it in. So I'm working on a bite prevention program. Very cool. So from 2023 to 2024, we had a big spike in bites, and it's been increasing year to year. So we're working on – we got handouts. We're working on presentations. So trying to get into schools and communities and talk about what people can do to prevent getting What can they do? I mean –
00:13:02
Speaker
Yeah, so a lot of it is um like knowing animal body language, so like what cats and dogs are telling you. um Breaking up dog fights is a big one where you see people get bit, so how to do that safely.
00:13:15
Speaker
um Obviously, if you see any wildlife, um you know we'll have kids like around a sick raccoon or whatever. Leave it, don't touch it, call us never never touch wildlife, um so things like that. know the...
00:13:30
Speaker
i know the Shelter does, um every other week they have low-cost vet clinics, um so you can get rabies at low cost, and then they have a free one coming up the 17th of um So that's coming up. um But yeah, making sure you get your animals microchipped would be big big help for us, because then we can return them home, save some space in the shelter.
00:13:54
Speaker
um
00:13:58
Speaker
I don't think so. You nailed it. yeah
Podcast Conclusion
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah. Are you going out to like schools or like, do you guys have an educational, like, we're pretty early on in, in the creation of this. So we've got some ideas we'd like to get into the schools. Old assemblies.
00:14:13
Speaker
Yeah, our data team has looked at like hot spots where we're seeing a lot of bites. So we're trying to target the education to those areas, places where we're seeing a big increase in and that sort of thing. So okay trying to get the word out to everyone. Prevention, right? Prevention, yes. Not what had happened. she just Keeps going up. And then obviously day to day we're working with dog owners trying to ah Make sure the dogs stay on property or on leash, you know, getting fix ah fences fixed, stuff like that.
00:14:42
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like everybody's got a dog here. Yeah. Yeah. I'm from Minnesota, but yeah, it's like. and Colorado is actually a good state as far as ah how animals are treated, how people think about them. Nice. though We're doing a good job, it sounds like. Yeah. I mean, there's always room for improvement, but yeah. Glad people have that mindset where they're looking out for the animals. So it's a good state.
00:15:06
Speaker
Well, thank you for jumping out that. Didn't want to miss that. But seriously, appreciate you guys so much. Again, thank you for your service. And yeah, thanks. Awesome. Thank you. That's a wrap for this episode of All In Adams.
00:15:19
Speaker
Thank you for joining us as we explore the people, programs, and the policies that make Adams County a great place to live, work, and thrive. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe and share with your friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Have a topic you'd like us to cover?
00:15:34
Speaker
Let us know. We're all in for bringing you the stories that matter most. Until next time, take care of each other and stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor, and X. We're all in, Adams, and we're all in for you.