Windham County Sheriff's Department
~ Breaking News ~

By PATRICK J. CROWLEY, Reformer Staff
Brattleboro Reformer

Any town in the county that feels it needs help with animal control would potentially be able to contract with the sheriff's department to handle animal-related complaints.

Clark said roughly $7,500 needs to be spent to get the position developed, or about $6,000 to convert one of the department's trucks to an animal control vehicle and the rest to train a person to take over the position and buy the necessary tools for the job, Clark said.

"I think it's a great idea," said Sue Cavila, manager of the Windham County Humane Society. She said in many towns, the existing animal control position is held by someone who has a day job. If many cases, calls aren't dealt with in a timely manner.

One of the greatest benefits to creating the position, Clark said, would be to take some of the burden of animal complaints away from deputies.

"The problem is that it's not something most deputies or officers want to get involved in," Clark said Friday.

Currently, when a complaint comes in of a feral dog or other issue, a deputy typically does not have the training, equipment or even time to deal with the problem properly.

So Clark, since taking over the position earlier this year, started to think about how he could deal with animal problems with the towns he contracts with.

But in order to pay for the position, Clark said, he would have to charge towns for the service, much the way he does with traffic control. The town and the sheriff's department would have to write up a contract for the service.

"It saves us a lot of headaches on this end," he said, explaining that if a deputy is doing scheduled time in a town like Whitingham, and a call comes in for an animal problem in Rockingham, not only is there about an hour of travel time in between, but the call also takes away from Whitingham's time.

With a full-time animal control position, that deputy wouldn't have to leave his or her scheduled town.

The person who would take the proposed position, Clark said, would likely be a current deputy who has some interest in doing the work. Training would be provided by the police academy as well as organizations like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society.

Clark said, however, that the plan is still "in its formative stage," and the specifics of how the position would work are yet to be determined.

The hope is that having more training and better equipment in the hands of one person would prevent injuries to either officers or the animal itself.

"That's a win for me if we can keep people and/or animals from getting hurt," Clark said.

He also sees it as a benefit for the towns that need it.

Brattleboro, to Clark's knowledge, is the only town in the county with a full-time animal control position. For the towns that don't have a position, "this is a way to offer a service they don't currently have."

With the individual towns, a contract for the position would vary. Clark said he would base it on population, prior history with the department and the number of calls.

Patrick J. Crowley can be reached at pcrowley@reformer.com, or 802-254-2311, ext. 277.