What do you do for a living?

My title is Animal Services Superintendent.

How would you describe what you do?

Basically, I’m the director or manager of the animal shelter, and/or animal services, which also encompasses animal control. We have a vet clinic also.

What does your work entail?

I work for a municipal shelter animal shelter. I’m responsible for planning the budget; making sure that we’ve got the money, and where to spend it, and where to put it. I buy vet supplies for the veterinarian too and make sure the officers are going to complaints and calls that people have out there on the street. I have to make sure we have animals up on the floor that have been temperament tested and they’re behaviorally sound. I have to make sure the animals are properly cleaned, and properly fed, and if they’re sick they get treatment. I talk to people when they bring in animals.

…that’s the satisfying thing—when you see the animals find a home, and you saw what they looked like when they came in—infested with fleas, infested with tics; and we’ve had to shave them down to their skin because of an irresponsible owner. And then you find it a great home, and that just makes it all worthwhile.

A lot of my duties are trying to educate people: publicity-type stuff—press releases, and educational materials and literature—and trying to make people aware of what is responsible pet ownership and how can you make pet overpopulation go away. Spay-neuter; we preach spay and neuter, spay and neuter. We try to come up with programs that will help people. When people bring in a stray there is no charge. When they bring in their own animal to surrender, for whatever reason, there’s no charge. That’s kind of a myth—that we charge folks. The adoption includes spay and neuter. We instituted micro-chipping about four or five years ago, so it’s helped us to get animals back to their owners. It’s a permanent form of identification, even if pets lose their tags, and collars, and all that.

I belong to a group called S.A.W.A., which is Society of Animal Welfare Administrators. We all try to work together and figure out what we can do to make pet ownership easier for people, but then, also look at, what people are doing wrong, and what crimes are being committed against animals. So, that’s part of my job, too, is to look at animal cruelty and people that are breaking ordinances. Continue Reading …

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What do you do for a living?

I treat sick animals and I put up with people.

How would you describe what you do?

In veterinary medicine you’ve got to do two things: you treat the animal, and then you’ve got to use psychology on the owner. Everyday I put up with people like that. And I make the joke that one end of the leash is easy to deal with. The other end of the leash is very difficult to deal with. If a person can’t deal with these individuals that are very demanding, that read the Internet too much, that think they know everything, if you can’t look past those people, and, bite your tongue at times, you won’t get very far.

When you save an animal’s life or some little old lady comes in here and gives you a hug because you have saved her animal’s life. That’s what it’s all about. Some people don’t think it is. Some people think it’s money. The most rewarding thing to me is what I do for the animal.

But, you know, we’re really treating people psychologically, and we’re treating the animal in their health needs; whether it’s cosmetic surgery or whether it’s sick animals’ treatment, routine health care, or disease prevention. It’s a broad spectrum of needs that the animals have. And then you add the mix of the people into it, and that’s what we do here everyday. Everyday. And some days, if the moon is full, we the wackos…You think I’m lying, but they come in that front door one after another. The ones that you just say, “Oh, God,” you know, “they’re coming in again?”

What does your work entail?

Continue Reading …

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