Report of the Animal Control Officer & Animal Inspector

ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER
 

It doesn’t seem possible that another year has come and gone. It has been a wonderful year here at the shelter with new walls inside the dog building. This makes the dogs much safer than with just the chain link fence between them. We have a beautiful handi-cap ramp on the cat building, and continue to upgrade the buildings as funds allow. We have a new outside cat area coming first thing in the spring which will allow the cats to enjoy fresh air during the day and a dream of a large play area for the dogs in on the horizon. The folks in town and from adjoining towns have been so wonderful in helping us achieve all the greatness around the shelter this past year. We really couldn’t do it without you.
 

This year we have had a few less calls with a total of 416. This is due to pet owners being diligent in the care of their animals. With the economy the way it is, we have found that many pets have had to be placed in our shelter to find new forever homes. The wildlife is getting pushed out of their areas much more with building still continuing so we had many, many wildlife calls. We are closing in on the 1000 dog license mark here in our small community. I want to thank the dog owners for abiding to the laws here in town. Our biggest problem has been and probably always will be cats. We have had to turn away cats a few times this past year due to overcrowding.
 

We had a Meet and Greet at The Summer House and also at the grand opening of Feed Warehouse, both on College Hwy. We met many wonderful people at both. We also had our first annual Pitchin for Paws horseshoe tournament and pig roast. We had so many wonderful sponsors and great prizes, thank you. We adopted between 70-80 cats this year, about 40 dogs. All the animals going to new homes leave here spay/neutered, vaccinated and tested. This is because of wonderful donations keeping our medical money coming in. We have also placed injured wildlife into rehab and have enjoyed knowing that many of them made it back into the wild.
 

We continue to strive to keep the animals happy and healthy. Our staff consists of four animal control officers so that we can continue with our 24/7 coverage. We have two great women that care and clean the animals seven days a week and spoil them rotten.
 

We will continue to provide a safe haven for the animals that are lost or are in need of new homes. We have been working with other originations to help us place our animals. As always, foster homes are always needed and always very welcome.
 

Thank you everyone for all that you have done for the Southwick Animal Shelter and for Animal Control.
 

Respectfully Submitted,
 

Tracy Root