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University Daily Kansan, January 25, 1984
Sterling Beebe, animal control office for Douglas County, looks at a tame ferret that he recently captured.
The job has its drawbacks. At times it's unpleasant, and sometimes it's dangerous.
"About half the people in town like you, and the other h: if don't," says Sterling Beebe in assessing his sometimes-maligned job with the city.
sometimes-maligned job with the city.
Beebe and his partner, Terry Haak, are the city's animal control officers, the guys generally referred to as dogcatchers.
But Robe flores at the thought
"Dogcatchers," he says, "that's all they do, go out and pick up dogs. We handle all kinds of animals. It is a profession I.
Beebe and Hank often face life-and-death situations in jobs that send them rushing to aid victims lying injured in the street. Other times they have to cart their captives, scared and lonely, off to the Lawrence Humane Society shelter.
"We had someone literally try to take an animal back from us," Haik recalled recently. "He look off his glasses and was
The two animal control officers are responsible for maintaining order in Lawrence's animal community. From picking up a stray dog to tracking a rabid animal, their job is serious business.
Some of the animals taken to the Humane Society are
Terry Haak, animal control officer for Douglas County, tries to coax a stray dog, to come closer so that he can capture it. He talked to it softly and caught it.
Grrr! Taming Lawrence's beasts
destroyed. They don't enjoy hauling animals to the shelter, but often they have no choice.
other they have no choice.
"I try not to think about it because I'm partial to animals," Haak said. "But there is always a dog with a certain personality that matches your attention."
Hank says abandoned animals had a better chance of being adopted at the Humane Society than they do just wandering
"This wouldn't be necessary if people took care of their animals." he said.
Last year, the city's animal control officers handled 2,550 complaints about animals and picked up 925 dogs, 218 cats and
Most of those dogs and cats ended up at the Humane Society, though some were taken to veterinarians. Most of the others were wild animals that Beebe or Haak took out of the city and freed.
A variety of wild animals find their way into the Lawrence city limits, the officers said. Beebe and Haak recently rounded up eight raccoons from a Lawrence home. They also captured the same beaver twice within three days.
"The beaver liked the Kerr-McGee gas station." Beebe said. "The first time we picked him up at the one (at Ninth and Illinois streets), we took him over to North Lawrence and let him go in the river."
Three days later the beaver emerged from a storm sewer and returned to the station.
Beebe and Haak have picked up a variety of other animals, including snakes, deer, opossum and such exotic pets as ferrets Beebe said he recently recovered a ferret that was stolen from a Colorado man's car.
After learning that the owner did not afford to return from Colorado to claim his ferret, Beeber drove the animal to western Missouri.
"They were happy to get it back," he said.
Most of the healthy wild animals are released at the state park at Clinton Lake. Beeeble and Haak take the injured ones to the animal care unit in Mallot Hall at the University of Kansas
Beebe she worried about the animals he had released at Clinton during the winter because he had removed them from their food supplies and from their homes. To help the animals who were lost, a lot of food and straw near the areas where he releases the them.
Beee said he maintains the food supplies on his own time.
Although the animals are sometimes unusual, most of the calls are for loose dogs. Beebe and Haak do not issue citations automatically when they pick up loose dogs.
"Most of the time on first offenses we won't," Haak said. "There are dogs I have picked up three or four times and are getting to know me."
The two animal control officers don't pick up all dogs that are loose, they said. If a dog apparently is in the owner's yard, they leave the dog alone. City ordinances require that an animal be under its owner's control at all times.
According to Lawrence ordinances, an animal that bites someone must be kept under observation at a veterinary for at least 10 minutes.
A ticket for a loose dog can cost between $10 and $100, and an offender could end up in jail for 10 days.
If an animal bites someone and later dies, Beebe or Haak delivers the animal to the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University.
Capturing animals requires a special skill. Some dogs get to be a problem.
"If you spook them," Haak said, "you won't be able to catch them. You have to talk softly and let them know you're their friend and then, generally, they'll come right to you."
Beebe says the secret is to talk to them as if they were people. Sometimes, though, gentle coaxing doesn't work, and an animal decides to bite.
Haak, who has been on the job for just four months, had never been bitten before Jan. 13, which was a Friday. Both were in prison.
Beebe has worked in Lawrence as an animal control officer for more than two years. Before that, he worked a similar job in Little Rock, Ark., where someone's pet bear attacked him.
"I had scratch marks on my shoulder for six months," he said.
Beebe loads an unhappy dog into a truck to take it to the animal shelter at the Lawrence Humane Society Inc.
Beebe checks a barrel at Clinton State Park that he keeps supplied with food and straw for wild animals that he releases nearby.
Haak leads a stray dog to a cage to be claimed by its owner, adopted or destroyed.
story and photos by Stephen Phillips
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