An animal control service or animal control agency is an entity charged with responding to requests for help with

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

s ranging from

wild animals Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted fo ...

, dangerous animals, or animals in distress. An individual who works for such an entity was once known as a dog catcher, but is generally now called an animal control officer, and may be an

employee Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any other ...

or a

contractor A contractor is a person or company that performs work on a contract basis. The term may refer to: Business roles * Defense contractor, arms industry which provides weapons or military goods to a government * General contractor, an individual o ...

– commonly employed by a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

shire Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...

, or other subnational government area.

Duties and function

Typically animals that are found will be checked for owner identification, including checking any ID tags, scanning for

microchips An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Transistor count, Large ...

, and checking for tattoos. Animals may be returned to their owners, or transported to a veterinary clinic or

animal shelter An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals – mostly dogs and cats – are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities, where stray livestock would ...

. Animals held in the shelter can be returned to their owners,

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

, released to the wild, held as evidence in a criminal investigation or

euthanized Animal euthanasia ( euthanasia from el, εὐθανασία; "good death") is the act of killing an animal or allowing it to die by withholding extreme medical measures. Reasons for euthanasia include incurable (and especially painful) conditi ...

. Animal control services may be provided by the government or through a contract with a humane society or society for the prevention of

cruelty to animals Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction by omission (neglect) or by commission by humans of suffering or harm upon non-human animals. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm or suf ...

. Officers may work for, or with,

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

departments, parks and recreation departments, and health departments by confining animals or investigating animal bites to humans. Active cruelty to animals may be an indicator of serious psychological or violence problems. Because of these links, in some places animal control officers have begun to look for and report on other issues.

Legal details in the United States of America

The most common requirements for this job is some prior experience handling animals on a farm, as a veterinary assistant or animal trainer. Training is primarily on the job but some jurisdictions (like Virginia, North Carolina and Texas) require formal and continuing education available from community colleges and trade associations. Some animal cruelty investigators are specially trained police officers, the New York

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing animal cruelty. Based in New York City since its inception in 1866, the organization's mission is "to provide effective mea ...

(ASPCA) employs several Humane Law Enforcement Officers with some police powers (including the power of

arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be questi ...

); and throughout the United States this arrangement is becoming more common.

Politics

An American colloquialism labels an unpopular politician by saying that he or she "couldn't be elected dogcatcher", with "dogcatcher" referring to a very low-level elected office. In practice, animal control officers are generally appointed by an executive authority and not elected. However, historic equivalents such as

poundmaster A poundmaster, or poundkeeper, was a local government official responsible for the feeding and care of stray livestock such as domestic pigs, cattle, horses, sheep, and geese. This was common in colonial America and continued into the 19th century ...

, which was tasked with the control of stray livestock, and

hog reeve Hog may refer to: Animals * Pig ** Usually referring to the domestic pig ** Sometimes referring to other animals in the family Suidae, including: *** Warthog *** Red river hog *** Giant forest hog * groundhog * hedgehog * hog (sheep), a yearling s ...

, whose mandate extended exclusively to stray swine, were elective offices in Colonial and early American

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. The town of

Duxbury, Vermont Duxbury () is a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,413 at the 2020 census. It claims to be the only municipality in the United States that has an elected position of dogcatcher. History In 1880, Emeline Meak ...

was said to be the only place in the contemporary United States that actually elects a dog catcher, but electing of dogcatchers was found to be illegal in Vermont in 2018. The job was then designated as appointment-only, with Zeb Towne, the last elected dogcatcher in Duxbury, being unanimously appointed to the position.

References

External links

American Animal Cruelty Investigations School
(USA)
National Dog Warden Association
(UK)
National Animal Care and Control Association
(USA)
Western Australian Rangers Association
{{Authority control Animal care occupations Animal welfare organizations Civil services Dog law ro:Hingher