McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, OK

Local News

July 12, 2006

Animal control officers’ training questioned following use of tranquilizer darts on dogs

By Doug Russell

What kind of training do animal control officers in McAlester receive?

Hands-on, on the job, according to Police Chief Jim Lyles.

“If we have a new person come on, and we haven’t in quite a while, it will be up to the older hand to show him the ropes,” Lyles said.

But some people say that’s not enough.

Brandi Lore, whose 4-year-old Siberian Husky/Spitz mix was almost killed when an errant tranquilizing dart went into its abdomen and “obliterated a kidney,” is one.

“The officers ought to be trained to use tranquilizers,” she said. “They ought to be trained that tranquilizers are a last resort and should only be used for vicious animals or animals that are a threat to people. They ought to be trained and certified.”

Deborah Vandawalker is another who believes animal control officers should be certified. Vandawalker did not return telephone calls from the McAlester News-Capital, but wrote in an e-mailed letter that she’d been an animal control officer for 14 years.

She said she’d been certified and trained to state and national standards and that she believes McAlester officers shouldn’t use tranquilizing darts until they’re trained and certified as well.

“If there is any statute that says animal control officers have to be certified, I’m not aware of it,” Lyles said. “If there is, show it to me.

“It’s not that it’s something we wouldn’t like to do, but right now we just don’t have the budget to do everything we’d like.”

Vandawalker and Lore said they believe there is a state law that requires animal control officers to be certified in certain cases. So does Russ Murry, an animal control officer with the Bixby Police Department.

“You have to be a certified darter, I believe,” Murry said, adding that he’d been trained and certified by the National Animal Control Association.

A representative for NACA said the organization is strictly voluntary and that she didn’t know if Oklahoma law requires animal control officers to be certified. Telephone calls to the Oklahoma Animal Control Officers Association went unanswered.

In 2003 the state passed a law called the Oklahoma Animal Control Officer Certification Act, but the wording in the act deals with officers who are involved in euthanization of animals, rather than in their capture. The law requires animal control officers involved in euthanasia to be registered with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics if the officers use a scheduled drug. The officers also have to be registered with the Oklahoma Veterinary Medical Association before they can perform euthanasia, but do not have to be registered with the OVMA to tranquilize animals.

McAlester’s animal control officers do not perform euthanasia.

Lyles said the Partners for Animal Welfare Society has urged him to send his animal control officers to an academy in Missouri, “But I can’t shut down that division for several weeks to send them to school if I’m not required to.”

The NACA academy and similar courses taught by the Humane Society of the United States, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and others can help reinforce state laws, as well as how to treat animals as humanely as possible, Murry said.

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