National Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week: Ready Pet GO!

CLEVELAND — They are some of the unsung heroes of the animal welfare community. This week is National Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week, where we honor animal control officers across the country and right here in Northeast Ohio. They spend countless hours ensuring public safety and are animal welfare first responders.

To better understand their role, we caught up with veteran police officers who say no two days are the same on the job.

Miguel Santiago, an officer with Cleveland Animal Care and Control, has an early day at work. By 8 a.m., he had already taken several adoptable dogs from Cleveland Kennels to Cleveland APL to be spayed/neutered. His work has just begun.

“Yes, 4575,” Santiago says. “That was the address of the bite.”

He has received the details of the dog bite report and must confirm it. We followed him as he drove into the southwest part of the city.

The caller claims he was bitten by a neighbor's dog. The dog and its owner were walking when the caller reached out to greet the dog and was bitten, according to the report.

These types of calls are common in Santiago. “And many times [dogs] “They can accidentally let go, jump over fences, or chase people,” he says.

Santiago approaches the house with a slip lead in hand, always prepared for the unexpected. A dog barks at him from the window next to the front door, but no one answers. He leaves a warning quote. Another officer on night shift returns to follow up.

subscribe: Get the day's top headlines sent to your inbox every weekday morning with our free 3News to GO.Newsletter

He already has the next address to visit.

“I'm going to answer the phone again from here. It looks like the dog is chasing people,” Santiago said.

In his 24 years of work, Santiago says his best days are the days when he doesn't get many phone calls. The warmer the weather, the worse the situation will be. But even on this cold rainy day, there is little rest.

By the next call, Santiago was familiar with the house and the dog. By now everyone had calmed down and loudly announced our arrival. “I've had problems with them before,” he says.

“Look, they're big guys!”

He leaves a report at the gate outside. The dogs are locked near the garage. He doesn't want to antagonize them any further.

The job is dangerous. Despite the best training and experience, attacks still occur.

We asked him what it takes to become an animal control officer. “I'm not scared,” he says with a laugh, and he's not kidding.

But the toughest days are the ones that involve incidents of neglect where animals suffer needlessly. He and his fellow officers are die-hard animal lovers.

learn more: City of Cleveland Animal Ordinance

“It's tough, it's tough,” Santiago said. “In cases of neglect without food or water, we hand it over to APL and they prosecute.”

We respond to a familiar theme: a new call for free-ranging dogs.

Santiago knows Cleveland like the back of his hand. By the time we arrived he had already finished surveying the area.

“This is considered GOA. It disappeared on arrival,” Santiago says. “no [loose] There are a lot of dogs in this area now, and I've picked up a lot of dogs on this street before. ”

Dogs make up the majority of calls, but not all. There is also a trapping program for nuisance wildlife, as we witnessed this day.

“This is a large-scale service that we provide, which is unusual for most animal control agencies,” said Bruce Campbell, kennel manager for the city of Cleveland. “If a resident has a problem with groundhogs, possums, skunks or raccoons on their property, we can rent traps for them to set and chase them off their property.”

Are you ready to deploy? Check out “City Dogs”!

More than four hours into his shift, Santiago finally stopped and took a moment to seriously think about his career choice. It doesn't apply to everyone.

“We are the only people who can represent the feelings of the animals,” Santiago said. “And a lot of our residents call us and let us know that something is going on. [The animals] I can't speak for myself. We all definitely make a difference. ”

His best days are seeing unclaimed animals adopted.

“I love animals,” he said. “I like them to go to good places and good homes.”

Want to be the first to know about the most important local and national news? Download the free WKYC app to get updates straight to your phone. android, apple.