The city of Columbus is looking to hire a new animal control officer.
A new officer, when hired, will actually split duty between the city and county. The officer will work full-time for the city and be paid $11.75 an hour plus benefits, according to Joe Dillon, public information officer with the city. Dillon said the county will reimburse the city for 50 percent of the officer’s salary.
City officials began advertising for the position on March 15. Since then, Dillon said, they’ve received interest from six applicants and have closed the application process to begin interviewing candidates.
Steve Scott formerly filled the position. He began working the split position in 2011. He resigned at the end of February, and began working for West Point Police Department in March.
Columbus Police Chief Oscar Lewis said the department still has an officer that works city animal control cases.
“Animal control officers are very important, especially because we have vicious dogs that need to be picked up,” Lewis said. “They’re valuable in that way. They also help control the pet population, and I think they’re valuable in that way. A lot of the time people will surrender animals to them that they can no longer care for.”
On a typical day, Scott said, E-911 would dispatch him to calls that came in during the early morning. If he had no calls, he’d check the phone log for complaints to address.
For the most part, Scott said complaints revolved around stray dogs or cats, with the occasional call to deal with animals such as cows or horses.
Scott said he also typically received a high number of reports for animal neglect. However, he said it’s hard to know if a case is actually neglect without going to the site. He said for all the calls that would come in about potential neglect cases, perhaps one or two a month were instances of actual neglect.
Some instances were also cases of people not knowing ordinance differences between the city and county. For example, Scott said a dogs can’t be chained in the city, but can in the county.
“A lot of times people might be driving and see a dog chained and immediately think that’s neglect,” he said. “If it was in the county, there was nothing we could do because that’s allowed.”
Sometimes the calls go well beyond the normal. Scott said he once had a call to a house where a man died. He said more than 200 birds, of all sizes, were inside.
Scott offered advice as the city continues its search. He said an officer has to be able to speak with the public without being intimidated.
He also said its crucial for any animal officer to care about animals.
“If you don’t like animals, or you’re afraid of animals, you don’t need to do the job,” he said. “People who don’t care about animals generally don’t make good animal control officers. People who are afraid of animals generally don’t make good officers.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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