Pet Talk

by Cathy Davis
    Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had several inquiries about cases of abuse, neglect, or stray animals and I’m wondering if it would be helpful to give everybody a general guideline as to what to do in most of these situations.
    Before I begin, I will tell you that the laws are very weak when it comes to animal welfare. Animals are considered “personal property” just like your TV or your sofa, so nobody can just walk in and take your animals without going through the necessary legal channels. They would be stealing your property, not to mention being guilty of trespass. This makes it difficult for animal welfare or control officers because so often, they receive anonymous tips but they don’t see any evidence of abuse themselves without going onto the property.
    I remember years ago, a gentleman who had been hunting had stumbled upon a grizzly scene, which I will not describe here but let’s just say it was blatantly evident that someone had been abusing cats. The hunter called the state police and the state police asked where he saw this evidence from. It quickly became evident that the witness had crossed the property line and actually saw what he saw from the perpetrator’s property. In other words, he was trespassing. For this reason, it was not possible to obtain a search warrant.
    I had a call one day from someone who suspected a dog was being neglected. She thought the dog had been adopted from the shelter and wondered if the shelter could do anything. Our adoption contracts do allow that we can schedule a wellness visit after adoption and new adopters sign these contracts so if the dog had come from the shelter, we could have asked for a visit. If the new owner agreed and we witnessed any signs of neglect, the contract allows us to return the animal to the shelter and report the neglect. In this particular case, the adoption was not from our shelter and what that means is that there was nothing at all we could do except recommend the caller inform their animal control officer.
    So what do you do if your neighbor is abusing their dog? If the shelter can’t help, which is the case most of the time – in Maine there are very few animal welfare groups or shelters with any authority to investigate abuse or neglect – then you call your town’s animal control officer first. If you don’t know who that is, call your town office and they’ll tell you and if they are closed, you can call the state of Maine or look it up online and they’ll tell you, or you can call the shelter and we have a list of animal control officers for our greater Houlton area.
    What happens if animal control doesn’t agree that there is a “situation” and you continue to witness the same abuse over and over again? Or what if you have a stray that wanders into your yard, but animal control doesn’t agree it’s a stray and doesn’t pick it up?
    The first thing is to have a frank and open discussion with your ACO. It could be that they know something you don’t. Perhaps they know the stray actually belongs to new people who moved in three doors down and will go home. Remember, when it comes to cats, the state of Maine refers to cats as “free roamers,” which means they have the “right” to leave their property. They don’t have to have a leash on, and they can “roam” the neighborhood without being arrested.
    This makes it extremely hard for an animal control officer to determine if the cat in your back yard is lost or if it’s just roaming! Imagine the training it takes to recognize a kitty that is hungry, sick, lost or abandoned, as opposed to just taking a spring stroll.
    So ACOs take a lot of time to observe these situations rather than just trap.
    If you’ve observed the same stray for weeks and you see signs of deterioration, lethargy, injury or disease, any indication that this animal is not getting enough food and water, and if animal control won’t respond, then your next call would be to their superior, which is usually their town manager in most cases. When you do that, it would be extremely helpful to have evidence, take some photos, date and time them, be consistent in taking photos over a period of days or weeks, so you can show a change in condition. If there is still no response, then you can call the state.
    It is unwise to try to catch a stray. If it is feral or sick, you could be injured, and to be honest, most folks don’t have the proper training or equipment to catch a frightened animal without the animal being injured or at the very least, terrified. Animal Control Officers are highly trained and skilled individuals, most of whom have been doing their jobs for years, who know how to handle these pets with skill and compassion. They know the laws, they do this job because they care about animals, because believe me, they don’t get up at midnight to chase a stray dog, they don’t come to work on Christmas day to pick up an injured pet, they don’t do this job for the money.
    So call your ACO, follow up often, take photos, make sure to canvass the neighborhood to see if an animal belongs to someone, in any case of abuse try to have some kind of evidence if you can, and working together, we will all do our best to help protect those who can’t speak for themselves.