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Animal Control pulls weekend service

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BY MARK ANDERSEN / Lincoln Journal Star

Thursday, Aug 24, 2006 - 12:14:57 am CDT

Don’t expect an Animal Control officer to respond to your phone call this weekend — or any other weekend — unless you’ve been bitten or have bats in your house.

Possum on the pavement? Leave a message or call Monday. Fido fled? Check back on Monday. Stray in the yard? Same.

“Starting this weekend, due to City Council budget cuts, we will no longer be responding to the community when they call regarding animal control issues,” said Bruce Dart, director of the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department.

Story Photo
Bruce Dart

Animal Control, a division of the department, averages 82 calls per weekend, he said.

Midnight Wednesday marked the end of the city’s fiscal year, and the health department shrank by four jobs, half in Animal Control. Budget cuts also took one Animal Control officer last year, Dart said.

Weekend hours officially begin at 7 a.m. Saturday and last until 7 a.m. Monday. During those hours, anyone calling 441-7900 will get an automated message.

Calls on bites and bats will be forwarded to 911 emergency dispatch, which will alert an infectious disease or Animal Control officer.

“This is not a good situation,” said Dart, “but we no longer have the staff to respond.”

People who find stray animals can take them on their own to the Capitol City Humane Society, but Dart didn’t recommend it.

Animal Control officers are trained to approach unfamiliar and potentially dangerous animals, he said. In the past, those officers could go out to chase down a dog before it became dangerous.

Now, Dart said, “We’ll come out for a bite.”

The health department will adjust its new policy as warranted.

“We really have no idea how it’s going to affect the community,” he said. The public’s expectation has always been that Animal Control will respond, he said.

Now, they won’t.

“That’s so frustrating to us.”

Reach Mark Andersen at 473-7238 or mandersen@journalstar.com.


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Mycroft wrote on August 24, 2006 1:51 am:
" Here in Lincoln it is hard to decide what is more laughable. LPS spends more and more, and then say they need more. The mayor wastes money on a grand scale, cuts ribbons, and wonders why everybody hates her. She should hire some consultants to find out why she is such a disaster. The City Council have been incompetent stooges and yet some amongst them think they should move up in the local power structure. That’s bound to improve life here in Lincoln. Bruce Dart, who employed every manipulative trick, with the aid and blind eye to reality of the mayor and CC to pass the Anti-Smoker Ban, now uses more scare tactics to try and manipulate the budget in “his” domain’s favor? Hey Bruce, you got what you wanted! We were promised that the Anti-Smoker Ban’s economic impact would be reviewed after 1 year. It hasn’t been reviewed and it’s been 1 year, 8 months. What do we know? Sales taxes are drastically down. Property taxes will pick up the slack. Isn’t this what was predicted by those who didn’t have an agenda except to survive in their businesses and protect the jobs of their employees? Now Bruce won’t answer any calls on the weekend. That sounds like a good thing. Is there any way we can get him to stop answering calls during the week? I think we should cut LPS’s budget by 0.001% and use the money to send Bruce to live in luxury in Venezuela for the rest of his life. Once that’s accomplished, maybe we can find the funds to ship Swaboda, Camp, Seng and the entire school board south of the border, or to China or India where our jobs went. When it comes to answers here, they got nothing –no, they got worse than nothing. "

 Simple Solution wrote on August 24, 2006 3:35 am:
" Animal Control should be under the Police Department anyway. The Health Department could retain an advisory role -- exactly as they do now when LPD encounters anything involving a potential health risk. This is the way it's currently handled on weekends anyway (and has been for a long time). Weekend calls ultimately wind up at LPD dispatch, who holds the call list and decides if the complaint justifies contacting Animal Control personnel. Just cut out the middle man. "

 connie wrote on August 24, 2006 5:48 am:
" Mostly, the animal control officers I've seen were used by disgruntled neighbors as weapons against each other. One came over to my neighbor's house, on a SUNDAY, measured their fence, checked th latch on their gate,and told them that their sweet old newfie was "too big" WAY too much time on their hands! Bats are our friends. We encourage them around our lake. (some people even put up bat-houses) They keep down the mosquito population better than any spray! No-one should take a stray to the 'humane' society anyway. They just kill them. I've found several nice strays good homes on my own, over the years. Animal control never did look for lost dogs, and if you get bitten by a dog, you shouldn't call animal control, you should call a DOCTOR! "

 Jim wrote on August 24, 2006 6:45 am:
" I think that this is enough to make a person puke. Do the people of Lincoln have a clue about waste that is in the service sector of the city and county? I have worked for both the city and county and when I confront waste I get the kick in the arse and a slap in the face too. Why eliminate a service like animal controll? This council and mayor needs some guts and audit all the sevice departments and get rid of the slackers (and there are many of them) Voters...you need some sense and get um all out and new officials in...then you may see change. "

 Terrance wrote on August 24, 2006 8:03 am:
" We'll get along okay without the extra baggage of a weekend animal control officer but i think it's important that Connie understand why the Lincoln Humane Society is forced to put down so many animals. Lincoln ranks in the top ten cities of the least community supported HS in the United States. That means it has almost no support from the citizens of Lincoln (when was the last time you donated any money to the HS Connie) and Lincoln is in the top ten cities with the least amount of business support. They run on a shoestring budget, they lack space to keep more animals alive. It's not because they enjoy ending the lives of animals it's that our citizenry by their lack of interest forces them to. If the people of Lincoln and our business community would come out and support our Humane Society we would all benefit. "

 Jane wrote on August 24, 2006 8:08 am:
" If dog owners would be more considerate of their neighbors and not allow their dogs to BARK or YIPE whenever they are outside, Animal Control would not be needed as much on the weekends, however, after several attempts talking to the neighbors, we have had to resort to calling Animal Control and thankfully, with the help of Animal Control, the neighbors took our complaints seriously and rectified the barking. It all comes down to the pet owners not being considerate to others. It seems that you have to get the authorities involved before pet owners will do something about the problem. "

 wow wrote on August 24, 2006 8:12 am:
" I guess the city will be losing more funds when someone sues because a dangerous dog is roaming the neighborhood and attacks someone on the weekend. "

 connie wrote on August 24, 2006 8:49 am:
" I donate large bags of pet food and even, once or twice, hay, to the humane society every year! I get a nice thank-you note too. I refuse to donate cash so they can purchase the means to kill perfectly healthy animals! "

 TB wrote on August 24, 2006 9:20 am:
" I guess the police will be going on a lot of wild dog chases instead of patroling or protecting our community, they'll be responding to a potentially dangerous dog in someone's lawn. Make's perfect sense to me!!!! Let's give our LPD officers something else to thier added daily duties. I think we could come up with a better plan than no Animal control on the weekend, maybe a lone officer who be available for emergency calls. "

 Castle Builder wrote on August 24, 2006 9:30 am:
" Looks like the "Dart Memorial" building will have sacrificed more staff to memorialize Mr. Dart. Sad State of affairs. "

 no killer wrote on August 24, 2006 9:35 am:
" to connie and others who object to the humane society's high kill rate, there is a no-kill shelter in auburn that saves literally thousands of animals. It can always use help. It's Hearts United for Animals. They have a website you can check out. "

 what? wrote on August 24, 2006 9:38 am:
" "Allow" dogs to bark or yipe? Seems to me in my experience that dogs have free will and do this on their own...they don't need my permission on the subject. Yes, some dogs are excessively noisy and these can be controlled better, but don't stereotype the whole bunch because of one experience of yours. Most dog owners take this kind of thing seriously, and seeking the easy way out and calling Animal Control is not always the solution. Notice that I say 'most' and not 'all' as there are exceptions to every rule. People calling animal control at the drop of a hat seem to be wasteful of resources when there are other solutions to the problem that can easily be used. "

 Gary wrote on August 24, 2006 10:33 am:
" As the city and county have continued to grow in population, services also need to grow, which requires more personnel, which requires more space. I don't see any relation between personnel costs and building costs. Furthermore, the city council specifically cut the animal control positions...if they had merely cut funding, perhaps cuts could have been made that saved the equivalent amount of money, but didn't result in loss of personnel. It never fails, when it comes to services in the city, people continue to demand a prime rib for the price of a hot dog. "

 ar wrote on August 24, 2006 11:39 am:
" it just gets worse and worse in this city, appears to me nobody cares about the animals. but the main problem is if people would just take care of their pets and have them spade and neutered from the get go capital humane society and animal control would not have to put down so many dogs and cats!!! ok lincoln, please please be responsible pet owners and take proper care of your pets, they deserve good lives!!! "

 DAVE C wrote on August 24, 2006 12:14 pm:
" Well, FINDLY a group the incompetents in city government can abuse without hearing from them. Can't anyone understand the true measure of humans is how we treat animals? Mr. Dart should not really be in charge of anything larger than a PTA group. "

 David wrote on August 24, 2006 12:20 pm:
" Dogs don't belong in a city anyway, they belong on a farm. Frankly, keeping a large dog chained or fenced in a yard in town is inhumane. "

 Roger wrote on August 24, 2006 1:51 pm:
" Well I keep a pellet gun handy for the occassional stray dog, raccoon, or other animal that threatens members of my household. Do we live in such a nanny state that a dog catcher to come out every time? No! This fat needed to be trimmed out a long time ago. "

 ar wrote on August 24, 2006 2:14 pm:
" dave c is right, people just dont understand that anyone who will abuse an animal will abuse a child, it has to start somewhere!!! make people accountable for their pets!!! "

 dk wrote on August 24, 2006 3:28 pm:
" I would be interested to know if Animal Control officers make more calls on Saturday and Sunday, versus weekdays. Since more people are usually home on weekends, outside, etc., it would seem that weekends would be the highest volume days to cut services. Just wondering..... I bet LPD isn't too happy about this! "

 J. wrote on August 24, 2006 4:08 pm:
" I was very dissapointed when I heard that Animal Control will no longer be available on weekends. About a month ago on a weekend, while walking my dog, I was confronted by a very large, very intimidating, very violent dog. I was lucky that my husband was with me and could head the dog off until I got my small dog safely away. While that was troubling, what could have been worse is that usually I have my infant with me on my walks. It could have been a lot worse had I not had both hands free to stear my dog away and if my husband hadn't been there...It is situations like that, where I would have really needed the Animal Control to get this dog if I had been by myself or had my baby with me. I'm afraid it will take a person or another dog getting seriously hurt before anyone at the city government understands that this is a safety issue, not necessarily only an annoyance issue. "

 Really? wrote on August 24, 2006 4:27 pm:
" I have lived in Lincoln my entire life, and I don't recall ever having to call animal control for a stray dog. You make it sound like Lincoln is Beruit, with strays rummaging in the streets. Maybe I need to start paying more attention. Or maybe some people just need to find something to fill their time! "

 D.S.B. wrote on August 24, 2006 5:05 pm:
" J., you can still call animal contol during the week about a dangerous dog at large. They wouldn't have been able to help you with that large dog on the spot anyway. It wasn't going to wait while you called them! Glad everything turned out ok, hint; pepper spray works on aggressive dogs, mailmen swear by it! "

 BOW WOW wrote on August 24, 2006 8:20 pm:
" This is typical fear mongering by the city employees. OHHH we wont be there on the weekend, OHHH what are you going to do without us. Guess what, when my home budget has to be balanced sometimes it means making sacrifices, sometimes essential things. I am so sick and tired of public safety services in Lincoln telling us doom and gloom stories about what will happen if there are cuts. YES I MEAN POLICE, FIRE & DOG CATCHERS. When other depts take cuts, I think you should to. Yep it may mean a longer repsonse time, but so be it. I already have to clean up my own graffiti, and police parties at my rentals. I have to have AEDS at my schools, so take your cuts like a man like everyone else. "

 M.M.H. wrote on August 24, 2006 8:52 pm:
" So, whom do we call or what do we do if a dog, hit by a car, is lying injured in the street? First dogs were banned from the Farmer's Market, then I saw a sign which says dogs aren't allowed on school grounds (apparently any time...even if school isn't in session), so don't be taking the family dog along when you take your kids to the school's playground after hours. Seems this is not O.K., leash or no leash. Lincoln has become a very unfriendly town for dogs...but, like has already been said, it's not like they vote or anything so they are an easy target. Thing is, a lot of retired folks like to have dogs after the kids are gone....another reason the older generation may be choosing to relocate elsewhere. This City isn't the same anymore and I know once retirement comes for us, we're out of here. "

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