Punching the Clock: Pound Puppies
With more than 800 dogs in the City of Norwich, it can be a full-time job ensuring that they don’t become nuisances to the community.
“The ultimate goal of dog control is to make the owners responsible for their dogs,” said Norwich’s Dog Control Officer Jeremy Stopford.
“If you told me 25 years ago I’d be doing this for 25 years, I would’ve called you crazy,” he joked.
Stopford allowed me to tag along with him earlier in the week as he began his afternoon dog patrol. Apart from his animal control duties, Jeremy also conducts traffic control at emergency calls inside the city, fills in for school crossing guards when needed and enforces parking rules. “Ever since we got rid of the meters, it’s a lot more work than it used to be,” said Jeremy.
Before going out for our patrol through the city, I got a crash course in dog safety and capture tactics. “I’ve been doing this for so long that basically I’ll probably know most of the dogs we might come across and 98 percent of the time all it takes is a dog treat and a gentle hand,” he said.
Jeremy showed me what might happen the other 2 percent of the time by showing me how to use a catch pole. These long metal poles have a loop of rope on one end and a pull string on the other. Wwhen you get the loop around the dog’s neck, you pull the string and lock it in. “I don’t really like to use it that often because the dogs are afraid of it and it makes them more unpredictable,” he said.
As a final warning Jeremy showed me an old Evening Sun newspaper clipping from 1986. The article described Jeremy getting attacked during one of his attempted captures. The stray dog had been reported in the city a couple of times throughout the week but was skittish and difficult to approach. Finally one afternoon with the aid of a sedative, Jeremy was able to approach the animal. “He seemed fine one minute, and as I was getting a hold of him, he turned on me and bit me here,” he said, lifting his chin in the air to show a faded scar near his throat. The dog had bit Jeremy repeatedly in the arm and neck area and he was taken to the hospital. The dog was later shot by police.
There are 823 dogs registered in the city. New York State requires all dogs older than four months be licensed. “It used to be a year old, then it was six months, now it’s four months old, and that’s basically because it’s when a dog really needs to have its rabies shots,” explained Stopford. He estimated that between the younger animals in the city and the owners who just don’t register their dogs, there are close nearly a thousand dogs in the city.
Stopford follows up a number of complaints made by citizens regarding barking, loose animals and mistreatment. He also responds to reports of missing pets and on this particular day, a man had reported the loss of his rottweilers just outside of the city. We briefly visited with the owner and discussed a recent stray that was picked up by the SPCA over the weekend. The “rotty” did not turn out to belong to the man in question, however.
“Currently I think we’ve got a few people looking for a Rott,” said Jeremy. He speculated that the dog actually belonged to another woman who reported her pet missing last week and we drove up to the SPCA to take a look at the animal. All the while, we kept a close eye on the streets for any dog-related issues. The dog at the SPCA turned out to be the owner’s in question, and the woman was actually there looking for her dog as we were pulling in. “Mission accomplished,” Jeremy said.
It costs $10 to register a neutered or spayed dog in the city and $20 if it is not. A dog captured by the Norwich Police will cost an owner $10 to retrieve it provided all other paperwork is in order, to retrieve an animal from the SPCA will cost around $70 or more, said Stopford.
Jeremy showed me the department’s “doggy jail” – a small area reserved in one of the car ports complete with two large cages, a couple blankets, some toys and a large bag of dog food.
“A lot of my job involves public relations, and for the most part, I’m pretty understanding that people forget or didn’t realize certain things. The ones that’ll usually get ticketed are the ones who abuse the system,” he said. In finishing up our patrol, we stopped at several complaint areas to ensure that owners who already had problems were complying. Most of these involved noise complaints. “People go off to work and they have no idea how their dog acts when they’re not around,” said Jeremy.
“The ultimate goal of dog control is to make the owners responsible for their dogs,” said Norwich’s Dog Control Officer Jeremy Stopford.
“If you told me 25 years ago I’d be doing this for 25 years, I would’ve called you crazy,” he joked.
Stopford allowed me to tag along with him earlier in the week as he began his afternoon dog patrol. Apart from his animal control duties, Jeremy also conducts traffic control at emergency calls inside the city, fills in for school crossing guards when needed and enforces parking rules. “Ever since we got rid of the meters, it’s a lot more work than it used to be,” said Jeremy.
Before going out for our patrol through the city, I got a crash course in dog safety and capture tactics. “I’ve been doing this for so long that basically I’ll probably know most of the dogs we might come across and 98 percent of the time all it takes is a dog treat and a gentle hand,” he said.
Jeremy showed me what might happen the other 2 percent of the time by showing me how to use a catch pole. These long metal poles have a loop of rope on one end and a pull string on the other. Wwhen you get the loop around the dog’s neck, you pull the string and lock it in. “I don’t really like to use it that often because the dogs are afraid of it and it makes them more unpredictable,” he said.
As a final warning Jeremy showed me an old Evening Sun newspaper clipping from 1986. The article described Jeremy getting attacked during one of his attempted captures. The stray dog had been reported in the city a couple of times throughout the week but was skittish and difficult to approach. Finally one afternoon with the aid of a sedative, Jeremy was able to approach the animal. “He seemed fine one minute, and as I was getting a hold of him, he turned on me and bit me here,” he said, lifting his chin in the air to show a faded scar near his throat. The dog had bit Jeremy repeatedly in the arm and neck area and he was taken to the hospital. The dog was later shot by police.
There are 823 dogs registered in the city. New York State requires all dogs older than four months be licensed. “It used to be a year old, then it was six months, now it’s four months old, and that’s basically because it’s when a dog really needs to have its rabies shots,” explained Stopford. He estimated that between the younger animals in the city and the owners who just don’t register their dogs, there are close nearly a thousand dogs in the city.
Stopford follows up a number of complaints made by citizens regarding barking, loose animals and mistreatment. He also responds to reports of missing pets and on this particular day, a man had reported the loss of his rottweilers just outside of the city. We briefly visited with the owner and discussed a recent stray that was picked up by the SPCA over the weekend. The “rotty” did not turn out to belong to the man in question, however.
“Currently I think we’ve got a few people looking for a Rott,” said Jeremy. He speculated that the dog actually belonged to another woman who reported her pet missing last week and we drove up to the SPCA to take a look at the animal. All the while, we kept a close eye on the streets for any dog-related issues. The dog at the SPCA turned out to be the owner’s in question, and the woman was actually there looking for her dog as we were pulling in. “Mission accomplished,” Jeremy said.
It costs $10 to register a neutered or spayed dog in the city and $20 if it is not. A dog captured by the Norwich Police will cost an owner $10 to retrieve it provided all other paperwork is in order, to retrieve an animal from the SPCA will cost around $70 or more, said Stopford.
Jeremy showed me the department’s “doggy jail” – a small area reserved in one of the car ports complete with two large cages, a couple blankets, some toys and a large bag of dog food.
“A lot of my job involves public relations, and for the most part, I’m pretty understanding that people forget or didn’t realize certain things. The ones that’ll usually get ticketed are the ones who abuse the system,” he said. In finishing up our patrol, we stopped at several complaint areas to ensure that owners who already had problems were complying. Most of these involved noise complaints. “People go off to work and they have no idea how their dog acts when they’re not around,” said Jeremy.
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