Animal control officers have new quota, are coming for Muffin
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According to the Web site of the Kansas City Dog Advocates, the Animal Control Department of Kansas City, Missouri, just issued a new policy for holding field officers accountable for their work.
As of August 1, each field officer must issue a minimum of 15 summonses for negligent pet owners and impound a minimum of 20 dogs per month.
The KCDA did the math: 18 full-time field officers bringing in 20 animals a month equals 360 per month, which is 4,320 per year.
Creating incentives for picking up more animals will only overcrowd Halfway Homes Pet Adoptions, the city’s shelter, the Web site argues. In order to comply with the quota, animal control officers might pick up animals for minor violations that wouldn’t have triggered an impound in the past. To make room for these animals, others will be killed. So far this year, of the 4,137 animals brought to the city’s shelter, 1,636 have been euthanized.
According to Brent Toellner, author of the KC Dog Blog, not all of the 4,137 animals were impounded by animal control officers. “779 were dropped off by owners at the shelter to be euthanized or to be adopted out,” Toellner tells The Pitch via e-mail. “There were another 670 stray dogs that were brought in by the public that seized the dogs themselves.”
Toellner considers himself an “unofficial watchdog” (har) over these issues and keeps tabs on animal control via regular records requests. Patrick Egberuare at Animal Control confirmed that the new policy is indeed in effect.
