The Animal Control Report pt. 1
The Animal Control Report is a podcast hosted by humane officers to educate and share stories and cases that showcase the role of the animal control officer as well as other individuals involved in animal welfare.
In Part 1, co-host Ashlee Bishop shares her role as an ACO in Wisconsin and talks about some of the cases she has worked on, the law as it applies in her service area, and things that could improve for the benefit of the animals.
The Animal Control Report can be found on your favorite podcast service provider or on their website ar https://humanemain.com/animalcontrolreport/
Transcript
Welcome to the Animal Welfare Junction.
Dr G:This is your host, Dr.
Dr G:G, and our music is produced and written by Mike Sullivan.
Dr G:Today we have a special guest.
Dr G:We have Ashley Bishop from the podcast Animal Control Report.
Dr G:Welcome, Ashley.
Dr G:Thank you so much for having me.
Dr G:So I'm really excited about having you and, , this is part
Dr G:one of a two-part episode.
Dr G:Part two is gonna be your co-host, Dan Edinger.
Dr G:. How about you tell us about yourself, kind of the path that
Dr G:brought you to where you're at.
Ashlee Bishop:Sure.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, it started way, way back when, um, I started with our local Humane Society
Ashlee Bishop:at the age of 13 volunteering, and I did everything from kennel tech to adoptions.
Ashlee Bishop:You name it, I did it.
Ashlee Bishop:And at the age of 18, um, we had just gotten humane officers through
Ashlee Bishop:our Humane Society at that time.
Ashlee Bishop:They got to go out on a call and it was, it was a mess.
Ashlee Bishop:It was.
Ashlee Bishop:80 dogs on 80 acres of land.
Ashlee Bishop:They were trying to catch 'em.
Ashlee Bishop:The dogs were basically feral.
Ashlee Bishop:The owner was living out of her car.
Ashlee Bishop:The weeds, I kid you not two feet above our heads.
Ashlee Bishop:It was a complete jungle out there.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, so after we worked a full shift at the Humane Society, we all went
Ashlee Bishop:out and we all had to try to round up as many of the dogs as we could.
Ashlee Bishop:And that was just kinda.
Ashlee Bishop:That was the point where I was like, Nope, I want to go from just
Ashlee Bishop:doing law enforcement, which was an interest of mine to, I wanna
Ashlee Bishop:go into being a humane officer.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, however, Watching the way that they had to operate, um, get a
Ashlee Bishop:veterinarian out on scene and then they had to have the Sheriff's Department
Ashlee Bishop:out with them cuz they weren't deputized, they weren't working with
Ashlee Bishop:the sheriff's department, they were just with our local Humane Society.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I decided I wanted to go a different route and I eventually
Ashlee Bishop:went and got my vet tech degree.
Ashlee Bishop:So I'm a certified veterinary technician as well.
Ashlee Bishop:And then, I actually, I graduated with my vet tech degree in January.
Ashlee Bishop:Applied for the brand new humane officer position, um, that they had
Ashlee Bishop:really pushed forward because of a really nasty case they had in my area.
Ashlee Bishop:And by July I was the hu brand new first and only humane officer in my area.
Ashlee Bishop:And I've been doing it for 10 years now.
Dr G:Awesome.
Dr G:And where is it that you are based out of?
Ashlee Bishop:I'm in central Wisconsin.
Ashlee Bishop:I cover four different jurisdictions.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I'm primarily in one city, and then they kind of contract
Ashlee Bishop:me out for the other three.
Ashlee Bishop:Okay.
Dr G:So being a technician has to be super useful, right?
Dr G:Oh, because you're gonna be able to understand stuff.
Dr G:How has being a technician helped you in, in help with some of the
Dr G:cases that you have worked with?
Ashlee Bishop:Um, it has made being able to observe things a whole lot easier.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, One story I love to tell is I had a dog that was kicked down a
Ashlee Bishop:flight of stairs and he was limping, he was whining, he was, um, and this
Ashlee Bishop:was several days after the incident.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, he was still exhibiting the symptoms and I charged the person
Ashlee Bishop:criminally weeks go by and we had.
Ashlee Bishop:Pretrial hearing, and I got called up to give my testimony and I tell 'em
Ashlee Bishop:what I had to say and get cross-examined by the defense and they said, well,
Ashlee Bishop:what gives you the authority to say that the animal was in pain?
Ashlee Bishop:And I looked at her and I said, well, I am a certified veterinary technic.
Ashlee Bishop:She looked at the judge and goes, no further questions.
Ashlee Bishop:And that was it, like, absolutely no clue.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, and it actually recently helped me too with a case where I had,
Ashlee Bishop:uh, three dogs that were involved with a domestic situation as well.
Ashlee Bishop:And um, they had some pretty extensive injuries, but because.
Ashlee Bishop:Part of it too, because I couldn't have decent photographs.
Ashlee Bishop:It's really hard to photograph the sclera of a dog's eye when they're
Ashlee Bishop:moving right and by yourself.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, so I didn't have good evidence of that, but because I have my, my
Ashlee Bishop:background, the judge was willing to accept that its testimony
Ashlee Bishop:and not need the photographs.
Dr G:Excellent.
Dr G:Yeah, cuz I think that's something that like veterinarians and
Dr G:technicians forget about the, the importance of having both photographs
Dr G:and a good written medical log.
Dr G:Right?
Dr G:Like, yeah.
Dr G:Not everything.
Dr G:One of the things that I have found the.
Dr G:The hardest to photograph is like problems inside of the ear will be
Dr G:examining a dog with, like I do.
Dr G:I've worked hoarding cases in large scale volume cases, so dogs will have
Dr G:really horrible ear problems and you try to take pictures and you spend
Dr G:15, 20 pictures and you get nothing.
Dr G:Sure.
Dr G:So the importance of having that written information about
Dr G:how bad things look like.
Ashlee Bishop:And smell.
Ashlee Bishop:So how ha
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:Yeah, exactly.
Dr G:Like things that you cannot capture in a picture.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:If you wanted to.
Dr G:So what kinda, what kinda cases do you see in your area most frequently?
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I mean, we've had everything from a hoarding case of
Ashlee Bishop:54 cats in a single wide mobile home.
Ashlee Bishop:That one surprisingly enough.
Ashlee Bishop:You know, I normally get told by child productive services.
Ashlee Bishop:Oh no.
Ashlee Bishop:You know, they're, they're 13, 14.
Ashlee Bishop:They know they can help around the house.
Ashlee Bishop:They can clean.
Ashlee Bishop:They're not gonna eat cat poop.
Ashlee Bishop:We don't need to remove 'em.
Ashlee Bishop:You know, things like that.
Ashlee Bishop:I had c p s remove a 15 year old that day.
Ashlee Bishop:Wow.
Ashlee Bishop:I, I asked the lady, I'm like, Well, I said, how many litter boxes do you have?
Ashlee Bishop:Oh, I have one and I clean it every day.
Ashlee Bishop:I said, no, ma'am, you have two.
Ashlee Bishop:You have your litter box and your house.
Dr G:Right?
Dr G:Your house
Ashlee Bishop:is a litter box.
Ashlee Bishop:Oh, it was, it was bad.
Ashlee Bishop:It was so bad.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, but yeah, 54 cats in a single wide mobile home.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, like I said, I've got some of the animal abuse.
Ashlee Bishop:I believe I have some cock fighting and dog fighting, but nothing I've
Ashlee Bishop:been able to put my finger on yet.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I have my suspicions, I have my certain people I'm watching, but
Ashlee Bishop:nothing I can do anything with yet.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, your general.
Ashlee Bishop:Stray animals.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, we do pick up stray cats and dogs for one of my jurisdictions,
Ashlee Bishop:three of my jurisdictions.
Ashlee Bishop:We don't do stray cats anymore.
Ashlee Bishop:It's a fight.
Dr G:Um, So
Ashlee Bishop:I do see a little bit of everything.
Ashlee Bishop:You know, I'm up in Wisconsin, so we have extreme temperatures.
Ashlee Bishop:When I kid you not, we had 80 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday it was 40
Ashlee Bishop:degrees, and Friday it was snowing.
Ashlee Bishop:So, Geez.
Dr G:I mean, that's kind of here in Ohio, it was something similar.
Dr G:We had two beautiful days of 80 degrees, and then yesterday it dropped
Dr G:down to 50, and today it was 47.
Dr G:And yesterday, my house, it was hailing snow.
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:So it was ju it's just like ridiculous.
Dr G:So I feel your pain.
Dr G:Um, and, and yeah, like just the, the people that don't realize
Dr G:that the temperature's gonna change from one day to another.
Dr G:So today you have to protect them from the cold weather, and tomorrow
Dr G:you have to protect them from the.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:So how, how are the, um, the rules in Wisconsin as far as protecting
Dr G:animals from extreme weather?
Dr G:Are there like awful housing?
Ashlee Bishop:They're, they're awful.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, my local ordinances, um, I have one that says, has to be 75
Ashlee Bishop:degrees or warmer, and they have to be in the vehicle 30 minutes or.
Ashlee Bishop:Oh
Dr G:wow.
Dr G:So they have to be dead pretty much before you can do something.
Ashlee Bishop:Be isis.
Ashlee Bishop:If I wanna do anything with a municipal citation, now I can use my state statutes.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, that.
Ashlee Bishop:Say, okay, if they are imminent danger or they've got, um, they should be in
Ashlee Bishop:ambient temperatures and things like that, I can use my state statute.
Ashlee Bishop:So typically if I'm removing an animal, that's what I'm doing.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, but those are even very tricky because, um, Shelter could be, oh, they
Ashlee Bishop:have access to under the porch, you know?
Ashlee Bishop:Um, doesn't have to be anything specific.
Ashlee Bishop:In fact, I do, I can, I have a couple areas where livestock
Ashlee Bishop:could be a thing I deal with.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I don't deal with it often, but, You know, even having just a
Ashlee Bishop:lean to just having tree cover can be considered shelter for them.
Ashlee Bishop:It, depending on the DA that you get.
Dr G:Right?
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:Here.
Dr G:Recently it was passed the law that if you think that an animal is in danger, like
Dr G:you have to call the police department, you have to call for help first.
Dr G:But if you feel that they're in danger, you can break a
Dr G:window to get an animal out.
Dr G:So is that different than where you're at?
Dr G:No.
Ashlee Bishop:You can do that here.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I worry that I'd have some people, I have had people standing outside
Ashlee Bishop:vehicles in jackets worried that it was too hot in a vehicle for a dog,
Ashlee Bishop:um, windows down and everything.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, yeah.
Ashlee Bishop:I've also had people tell me that the windows were all the way up when it was
Ashlee Bishop:cold enough, so heat was not a concern.
Ashlee Bishop:They were concerned that the dog wasn't getting air like it was
Ashlee Bishop:gonna run out of oxygen because the windows were all the way up.
Ashlee Bishop:So I worry about those people breaking windows, right?
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:And, and from what I understand, the statute here is like you have to prove
Dr G:that you had enough of a concern.
Dr G:So either take a picture, take a video, something so that.
Dr G:I mean, I can totally see somebody just being a jerk and saying, oh,
Dr G:this person left their car, the dog in a car, and that's not okay.
Dr G:I'm just gonna break their window because I can, and I'm protected.
Dr G:Right?
Dr G:Like, you kind of have to show to show what what's going on.
Dr G:And they don't realize
Ashlee Bishop:that the Tesla has a setting that you can put
Ashlee Bishop:the Tesla on that has it set to a specific temperature for animals.
Ashlee Bishop:Like they have an animal setting in the Teslas.
Dr G:I did not know that.
Dr G:Yeah, that's pretty, that was pretty good on Tesla.
Dr G:That's pretty advance on Tesla.
Dr G:Uh, yeah, because one of the concerns that we get into here is like
Dr G:people that will set their auto.
Dr G:And then I'm just going to the store for 10 minutes.
Dr G:Well, they stay in the store for an hour.
Dr G:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:And the auto start stopped within like 30 minutes.
Dr G:So we do see on occasion, like the, the overheated animal, um, But we
Dr G:also see plenty of overheated animals that aren't just outside, like in the
Dr G:yard and they just, yeah, get left outside for too long, especially older,
Dr G:older dogs and that kind of stuff.
Dr G:So how, um, you were talking about hoarding cases.
Dr G:How do you see mostly like overwhelmed caregiver hoarders, or do you
Dr G:see rescue hoarders, exploiters?
Dr G:A little bit of everything.
Dr G:What are your coolest hoarding stories?.
Ashlee Bishop:I don't feel like I've ever seen the exploiter ones.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, it's usually elderly or somehow mentally challenged.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, that in fact, going back to the 54 Cats, that was a woman who got
Ashlee Bishop:two cats and never got 'em fixed and never did anything with them.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, and so.
Ashlee Bishop:You know, she just, and I, I got very frustrated on that case
Ashlee Bishop:because I was told by the captain, um, well, it's her problem.
Ashlee Bishop:She's gotta figure out a way to cl clean it up and, and get rid of him.
Ashlee Bishop:And I'm like, but she obviously can't.
Ashlee Bishop:This has been a hundred point for years.
Ashlee Bishop:And she can't.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, and so I had to make the connections and contact multiple jurisdictions and be
Ashlee Bishop:like, Hey, can you take cats and stuff?
Ashlee Bishop:Um, we recently actually going back, it was very nostalgic for me in a way.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, our current executive director at our Humane Society, so I
Ashlee Bishop:work for a police department.
Ashlee Bishop:But I work very closely with our shelter and the executive director
Ashlee Bishop:is somebody I used to work with when I worked at the shelter.
Ashlee Bishop:We were both, you know, 16 years old starting out there, and her and I got
Ashlee Bishop:asked to assist on another case of hoarding where, um, again, it, it was just
Ashlee Bishop:that overwhelmed elderly gentleman who.
Ashlee Bishop:Pretty sure I walked into the house to get a dog and he was
Ashlee Bishop:just peeing on his floor himself.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, geez.
Ashlee Bishop:That's the only reason I can assume his pants were below his knees.
Ashlee Bishop:But, um, Again, the weeds were just, you know, above my head and nothing
Ashlee Bishop:on the property was well cared for.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, he had said that at one point he thought he had over a hundred cats,
Ashlee Bishop:but the dogs had eaten them all.
Ashlee Bishop:Oh, wow.
Ashlee Bishop:We, we only found four cats, um, and plenty of skeleton.
Ashlee Bishop:But geez.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, that seems to be our, our big thing over here is more the
Ashlee Bishop:overwhelmed and just not intentional.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, but, and it's usually pretty extreme too.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, His, what did we take out of there?
Ashlee Bishop:2023 dogs, again, all running loose everywhere, not contained at all.
Ashlee Bishop:So that was another very long day.
Dr G:Yeah, I, people always say reproduce like rabbits.
Dr G:People should say reproduce like cats because cats just like, it's
Dr G:like, I mean, just never ending.
Dr G:I actually, I'm working on a case.
Dr G:Of somebody that came to me asking for help and neutering some cats
Dr G:and you, you kind of get an idea when somebody has a lot of animals.
Dr G:You get your spidey scents up mm-hmm.
Dr G:And you know that something's up.
Dr G:And she was asking for help neutering 13 male cats.
Dr G:And to me that sounded awkward or odd, right?
Dr G:Like who needs to neuter 13 cats?
Dr G:So I started asking her more questions and more questions and
Dr G:getting her comfortable with me.
Dr G:And then she said, well, because we're just, if we fix the males, then
Dr G:we don't have to worry about them.
Dr G:We're producing.
Dr G:And I was like, well, how many females are we talking about?
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:So at the end of asking, she had 96.
Dr G:Oh, so yeah.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:So I'm like keeping my cool and I'm just talking to her because the
Dr G:other thing about hoarders, anybody that has been into a hoarding house
Dr G:knows the smell of a hoarding hose.
Dr G:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:And that smell sticks with you for like two, three days after you're done.
Dr G:Yep.
Dr G:And people that live in a hoarding house smell like they can leave the
Dr G:house, but the smell comes with them.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:She did not like, she did not smell, she did not emanate that, that stent.
Dr G:She looked really clean.
Dr G:She didn't, she was very kind, very nice.
Dr G:And then she's showing me pictures of these cats.
Dr G:And these cats look fine, right?
Dr G:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:So I tell my staff when my staff is like, we need to take the truck there, right?
Dr G:Because I have a spay neuter truck.
Dr G:So it's like, we need to just go to her house and take care of this.
Dr G:So we went to her house and you would not believe how clean that house was.
Dr G:Really small.
Dr G:Two bedroom home, 96 cats indoors.
Dr G:Wow.
Dr G:She had had them separate males and females separate in different rooms.
Dr G:Uh, she had nine litter boxes.
Dr G:Her, her and her family.
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:Oh yeah.
Dr G:Nine boxes.
Dr G:Everything gets cleaned every three hours.
Dr G:So I mean, this woman should run a shelter because the house with all these cats are.
Dr G:Kept cleaner and better than most shelters.
Dr G:And the main reason I'm writing a case study, I mean, first of all,
Dr G:it's to me amazing that somebody would have 96 cats and have a clean house,
Dr G:but she has a support system, right?
Dr G:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:So most hoarders don't have family that are supporting them, and she has a
Dr G:husband and a son that are supporting.
Dr G:And they're helping with the, the money and the cleaning and everything
Dr G:that has to do with these sounds.
Dr G:But the other thing is, is she, is she really able to maintain this
Dr G:long term or did I catch her at that point before it gets outta hand?
Dr G:Sure.
Dr G:And it becomes a smelly house.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:So, um, Following.
Dr G:We, we went to her house and we sterilized everybody that was not sterilized.
Dr G:So we sterilized 66 cats that day.
Dr G:Oh.
Dr G:Um, yeah.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:And, uh, so we're like, okay, no more cats, please.
Dr G:Like, yeah, this is, this is it.
Dr G:Um, so I'm going to, to continue monitoring.
Dr G:Just to make sure that, that she's doing okay.
Dr G:I mean, I don't want her to fail.
Dr G:I would love for her to keep a clean house forever.
Dr G:None of the cats are sick.
Dr G:By the way.
Dr G:None of the cats are dirty.
Dr G:She has long-haired cats that don't have mats.
Dr G:Wow.
Dr G:There's no poop outside.
Dr G:I have two cats.
Dr G:I can't keep my two cats from going in the bathroom outside of their box.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:This woman has 96 cats.
Dr G:All of them go in their.
Dr G:Wow.
Dr G:Amazing.
Dr G:Right?
Ashlee Bishop:So, but then you, so you almost have to wonder, you know, does
Ashlee Bishop:she have something else like some O C D that's contributing to the, her success
Dr G:and, and I mean, she cleans houses for her living.
Dr G:Okay.
Dr G:So she has that in her.
Dr G:Sure.
Dr G:Kinda kinda say, you know, like that's one of the things
Dr G:that she does, but it's really.
Dr G:She got in, she got into this problem, like you mentioned.
Dr G:You know, you start with two cats.
Dr G:So she had a few cats and then all of a sudden she had 20
Dr G:cats and then she had 30 cats.
Dr G:But they were all sterilized because she was getting them a little bit at a time.
Dr G:And then her husband brings home several cats from a construction
Dr G:site, and they were all pregnant.
Dr G:She got seven pregnant cats.
Dr G:So all of a sudden she went, and this was last year, right?
Dr G:So all of a sudden she goes from 35 or so cats to 90 cats.
Dr G:So again, are we, are we seeing somebody that can manage or are we seeing the early
Dr G:stages before becoming an overwhelmed?
Dr G:Caretaker hoarder that that is gonna have problems.
Dr G:And listening to her story is just kind of sad because she doesn't
Dr G:wanna get rid of any of the cats.
Dr G:So she's an overwhelmed caretaker, but she's also a rescue hoarder.
Dr G:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:Because she feels that she's the best person for it.
Dr G:But in her, in her lifetime, she has had so many negative experiences
Dr G:with people hurting animals.
Dr G:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:That she's afraid that she's going to adopt a cat.
Dr G:And then, you know, somebody's gonna hurt the cat or, or kill it,
Dr G:or even not just give it affection.
Dr G:Um, so, so yeah, it's a really interesting
Ashlee Bishop:overall story.
Ashlee Bishop:Now imagine if, I mean, there's a veterinarian shortage and mm-hmm.
Ashlee Bishop:Our clinics are.
Ashlee Bishop:Backed up months.
Ashlee Bishop:I've got a dangerous dog that isn't gonna get spayed until August.
Ashlee Bishop:Mm-hmm.
Ashlee Bishop:She's supposed to be spayed by the end of, or by the middle of next month.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, so imagine if she didn't find you in your clinic.
Ashlee Bishop:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:No, exactly.
Dr G:Because she, none of the cats that we spayed were pregnant.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:Which I was really surprised because it was March.
Dr G:So it was the beginning of kitten season here.
Dr G:So nobody was pregnant and she had the intact females separated
Dr G:from the in intact males.
Dr G:Okay.
Dr G:However, she had at least one female that she had sex wrong.
Dr G:Oh, in the room with the boys.
Dr G:So that right there would've started the whole cycle again.
Dr G:And I mean, I was really surprised.
Dr G:96 cats and she only missed sex.
Dr G:One adult and a couple of babies.
Dr G:The brand new babies like eight weeks.
Dr G:Okay.
Dr G:And she knew na, she knew names.
Dr G:Most of the hoarders that I, that I meet, they have no idea who's who.
Dr G:Um, she, she knew their ages, like all the ages that she gave us,
Dr G:matched like their teeth perfectly.
Dr G:So it was just pretty amazing.
Dr G:And again, I think that it's because she has a support structure as opposed
Dr G:to most hoarders, their family just abandons them because they can't deal
Dr G:with the animals, they can't deal with the smell, they can't deal with all.
Dr G:All the junk that they carry.
Dr G:Right.
Ashlee Bishop:So I can only imagine how much money she was
Ashlee Bishop:spending on food and litter.
Ashlee Bishop:Mm-hmm.
Ashlee Bishop:And I would assume cleaning supplies.
Ashlee Bishop:Cuz I'm sure that those males, they, I mean, they had to have been spraying.
Ashlee Bishop:I know
Dr G:she said that they were not spraying.
Dr G:She said that occasionally they were having some accidents
Dr G:because they were boys.
Dr G:So, I mean, I suppose spring, but yeah.
Dr G:Not, not really anything that was, that was significant.
Dr G:Huh.
Dr G:Um, but yeah, she, they spend more money on the cats that they spend on themselves
Dr G:and they find themselves sometimes having to go out and search for places for food.
Dr G:Sure.
Dr G:Like food banks and stuff, because they wanna make sure
Dr G:that the cats are taken care of.
Dr G:Sure.
Dr G:So, yeah, it was a, it was a really interesting story because the other,
Dr G:the other thing is, I don't know if you guys, it doesn't sound like you have
Dr G:a number of animal maximum allowed.
Dr G:It's, we.
Dr G:Do you?
Dr G:Okay,
Ashlee Bishop:it's two.
Ashlee Bishop:What is your two cat, or I'm sorry, two dogs and, and or three cats
Ashlee Bishop:depending on my jurisdiction.
Ashlee Bishop:So that's my main jurisdiction, and then it varies anywhere from
Ashlee Bishop:two animals total to, in one of my areas it's three dogs, four cats.
Ashlee Bishop:So how
Dr G:would that then work out with, like you said, the one lady that the
Dr G:chief is like, she has to figure it out, like isn't it then the department's
Dr G:job to figure it out for her?
Ashlee Bishop:Yeah.
Ashlee Bishop:Well, and I, I made it my job to figure it out for her.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, that department is particularly hands off on a lot of things.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, but.
Ashlee Bishop:For the most part, I will try to work with people in encouraging
Ashlee Bishop:them to do, you know, surrenders or find other friends or family that
Ashlee Bishop:want to take on more animals or, and animal and adopt it out themselves.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, so I, I'm trying to think if in my 10 years, if I've ever had to.
Ashlee Bishop:Force somebody, I can't remember a time where I've actually had to force
Ashlee Bishop:somebody short of these extreme ones and she ended up, um, lady with my 54 cats.
Ashlee Bishop:She was gonna try to keep two of them and I was going to make it.
Ashlee Bishop:A stipulation that if she kept two, they were going to be the same sex and
Ashlee Bishop:they were gonna be fixed before they were able to stay back at her house.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, but then at the very last minute, she signed everybody over to me.
Ashlee Bishop:Hmm.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I'm not lucky enough to get that to work all the time.
Ashlee Bishop:I, there's very.
Ashlee Bishop:Extreme differences between how I handle our animal stuff versus like how
Ashlee Bishop:our county handles our animal stuff.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, the county will, so I did the agency assist for those
Ashlee Bishop:25 dogs they sat for months.
Ashlee Bishop:So I guess he actually could have been a rescuer cuz they were
Ashlee Bishop:always strays that he found and, and he just couldn't give up.
Ashlee Bishop:He wouldn't surrender 'em at all and the county would
Ashlee Bishop:leave them sit at the shelter.
Ashlee Bishop:And it was incredibly frustrating for the shelter cuz they
Ashlee Bishop:can't do anything with them.
Ashlee Bishop:Mm-hmm.
Ashlee Bishop:They're just taking up space.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, and it took several months to get custody of those
Ashlee Bishop:dogs for the shelter versus.
Ashlee Bishop:I had three dogs.
Ashlee Bishop:I took on a search warrant and I immediately, the next week started
Ashlee Bishop:the process of petitioning the court for custody of the dogs, giving the
Ashlee Bishop:opportunity to the owners to surrender 'em, which they weren't going to
Ashlee Bishop:because they were, um, breeding them, uh, doodles of any sort.
Ashlee Bishop:It didn't matter.
Ashlee Bishop:Yeah.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, but so, I, I get working on it right away in a lot of it as a, it costs my
Ashlee Bishop:jurisdiction a lot of money just to pay the shelter for having cared for
Ashlee Bishop:them for me, but then I don't have to worry about these animals just sitting
Ashlee Bishop:there in kennels when they could be adopted, you know, and get out in,
Ashlee Bishop:into homes as long as they're healthy and, uh, you know, everything that way.
Ashlee Bishop:, So it's very different.
Ashlee Bishop:And it's interesting up here cuz we don't have, and it's one thing I really
Ashlee Bishop:wanna work on, I just, it's, it's a very time consuming and just haven't had the
Ashlee Bishop:time with my own family and stuff to do.
Ashlee Bishop:It is, we don't have a, like a state humane organization for humane officers.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, and so I'm finding out.
Ashlee Bishop:Every jurisdiction is treating their humane officers and their
Ashlee Bishop:animal cases incredibly different.
Ashlee Bishop:I found out the other day one of our humane officers just to the county next
Ashlee Bishop:to me is running out of her own vehicle.
Ashlee Bishop:She doesn't have a uniform.
Ashlee Bishop:She had to buy her own, um, bulletproof vest and that she's
Ashlee Bishop:working for their sheriff's department.
Ashlee Bishop:Wow.
Ashlee Bishop:and she's not the only one I know of in this state that is under those guidelines.
Ashlee Bishop:And then you have me who, I've got a bulletproof vest.
Ashlee Bishop:It's questionable, but I have one, um, you know, I have a full uniform, I have
Ashlee Bishop:a badge, I have a baton and pepper spray, and I have direct access to our dispatch
Ashlee Bishop:and all the other officers in my area.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, It's very different in how things can get run up here and how bringing it
Ashlee Bishop:back, like I will just say, Hey, work on finding a home for these extra animals.
Ashlee Bishop:Figure out who you can't keep contact, the humane society, contact,
Ashlee Bishop:rescues, whatever you gotta do.
Ashlee Bishop:Versus, I know some areas would just go in and be like, Nope, you can't have 'em.
Ashlee Bishop:I'm taking 'em.
Dr G:I mean, I guess we're a little bit lucky in Ohio that most places
Dr G:tend to seem to have some support.
Dr G:But I know that more, a lot of places, especially rural areas,
Dr G:do not have a lot of support.
Dr G:Now, one thing that Ohio has is the ability to assign an animal, uh,
Dr G:special animal prosecutor to cases.
Dr G:Is that something.
Dr G:Uh, doesn't exist where you're at.
Dr G:I take it specifically
Ashlee Bishop:my county.
Ashlee Bishop:No.
Ashlee Bishop:For a while there I did, but we're seeing a lot of turnaround
Ashlee Bishop:in our, um, DA's office.
Ashlee Bishop:I don't know if it's that they're coming in to start their career and then they,
Ashlee Bishop:you know, go off and do something else.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I have not had an animal prosecutor specifically for years,
Ashlee Bishop:so I have to, essentially, I have to retrain everybody for a new case.
Ashlee Bishop:And I say that I train 'em because nine times outta 10, they haven't
Ashlee Bishop:ever opened up our animal laws.
Ashlee Bishop:Yeah,
Dr G:I had, I mean, I.
Dr G:One case of bestiality that I was telling the people that I was working
Dr G:with that that was illegal and they were like, oh no, it's not illegal.
Dr G:Because sadly enough, it was legal up to just a few years ago in Ohio.
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:So, uh, it became illegal and apparently the memo didn't go out to everybody.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:So, so, yeah.
Dr G:So it's so important to have somebody that, that deals with animals.
Dr G:We we're really lucky that there is.
Dr G:Uh, law office here in Ohio that deals with animal cases and the law allows them
Dr G:to go outside of their county, right?
Dr G:So they can go in any county and replace the local prosecutor
Dr G:for animal related cases.
Dr G:So it's super helpful because they are so good, so smart, so knowledgeable.
Dr G:You don't have.
Dr G:Explain to them what the law is.
Dr G:They actually explained to me what the law is.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:Nice.
Dr G:And it's really, it's really nice and easy to work with.
Dr G:I, I worked with a starvation case where the prosecutor didn't really
Dr G:care about prosecuting the starvation case because he already had some
Dr G:other charges against the people.
Dr G:So they were like, well, we already have enough charges.
Dr G:We don't care about this dog charge.
Dr G:Yep.
Dr G:But that dog charge would've potentially been a felony.
Dr G:And these are people with children.
Dr G:So, I mean, there are so many ramifications of going after these people
Dr G:who are, they literally starve the dog to death in the basement on purpose.
Dr G:Yep.
Dr G:And there's, there's proof, like, are, are you
Ashlee Bishop:sure you're not, are you sure you're not in Wisconsin?
Ashlee Bishop:Because I have it like exact same case.
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:Well, and you know, I have learned over time.
Dr G:What I have to improve in my reports and my evaluations to help the
Dr G:prosecutors wanna have a conviction.
Dr G:So in that case, I had the University of Florida do entomology report on the
Dr G:bugs that were recovered from the body.
Dr G:I had Michigan State University do a bone, uh, bone marrow.
Dr G:Fat analysis to determine that the dog was starved.
Dr G:I did a CT scan, X-rays I examined did a full ne on the dog.
Dr G:I mean, that case was like almost like human forensics examined.
Dr G:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:And we had everything.
Dr G:And the prosecutor didn't not believe that there was abuse.
Dr G:They just literally, they don't want, they didn't care to pursue
Dr G:it just because they didn't.
Dr G:So that was really, really upsetting.
Dr G:Whereas having an animal prosecutor, it has been a game changer, uh, for me.
Dr G:You know, as long as I write a, a good report and I have something
Dr G:productive to, to show, then they're very willing to, to move forward with it
Ashlee Bishop:solely.
Ashlee Bishop:Out of curiosity, what was, do you remember what the, uh, bone
Ashlee Bishop:marrow fat was in that dog?
Dr G:The one was 14 I believe.
Dr G:Which was like ridiculously low.
Dr G:I did two.
Dr G:Two starvation.
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:Yes.
Dr G:Jesus.
Dr G:And they didn't wanna prosecute.
Dr G:Geez.
Dr G:See, and I had, I had two that I submitted.
Dr G:That one was about 14.
Dr G:The other one was 30 something, 36 I believe.
Dr G:And the difference was the one with 36 also had no access to water.
Dr G:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:So I think that dog clearly died of dehydration.
Dr G:Sure.
Dr G:Before it died of starvation.
Dr G:But the other dog had access to water.
Dr G:I think that dog literally lived, its 30 days of No.
Dr G:Until it just literally starved to death.
Dr G:And it's, I think that, you know, prosecutors that are not interested
Dr G:in animal welfare don't understand the ramifications of it because they don't
Dr G:understand that these people didn't care about that life in their basement to
Dr G:the point of letting it start to death.
Dr G:They don't care about anybody else.
Dr G:They don't care about the kids, they don't care about anything.
Dr G:And there was domestic violence in that household.
Dr G:So, I
Ashlee Bishop:mean, and that's all the link, right?
Ashlee Bishop:Exactly, and I'm, I'm a huge proponent for the link and, um,
Ashlee Bishop:because I've had that case, um, again, I also had kids in the house.
Ashlee Bishop:They showed me the food that was inside the house, even though the dog was, you
Ashlee Bishop:know, in a common area in a hallway.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, she also had parvo and main.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, which correct me if I'm wrong, it's normal body or normal fat
Ashlee Bishop:content should be 80% in bone marrow.
Dr G:It's actually, I believe 54 is the minimum.
Dr G:Okay.
Dr G:I, I don't know.
Dr G:That's what the Michigan State ranges.
Ashlee Bishop:Okay.
Ashlee Bishop:I was told that now.
Ashlee Bishop:I mean, my case is, this case is, uh, 5, 6, 7 years old.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, but I'm pretty sure I was originally.
Ashlee Bishop:Like the ideal would be 80%.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, but what I've actually started doing, because I don't get the prosecutions and
Ashlee Bishop:I don't get 'em taken in and charges dealt out the way that I want them to, is when
Ashlee Bishop:I have these little bit bigger cases.
Ashlee Bishop:And again, my department is finicky on how much and where they're
Ashlee Bishop:willing to spend their money.
Ashlee Bishop:I have been working a lot with the A S P C A and their forensic team.
Ashlee Bishop:Nice.
Ashlee Bishop:Because my thought is, is if I can work with an national organization and I can
Ashlee Bishop:get a national organization backing me on enough of these cases, maybe my DA's
Ashlee Bishop:office will finally look at it and go, oh.
Ashlee Bishop:This big name is willing like to take this case.
Ashlee Bishop:Maybe I should too.
Ashlee Bishop:Plus the A S P C A has a legal team that they are willing to have contact
Ashlee Bishop:the prosecuting attorneys and work with them on their laws and how to
Ashlee Bishop:prosecute it and things like that.
Ashlee Bishop:So I whew.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, in the last.
Ashlee Bishop:Two years or so.
Ashlee Bishop:I think I've had five or six cases.
Ashlee Bishop:I'm like on a first name basis with their forensic bet.
Dr G:That's a good friend to have.
Ashlee Bishop:Yeah.
Ashlee Bishop:Yeah.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, because yeah, it's been.
Ashlee Bishop:The one case I just texted her, I'm like, all right, is this one even worth the one?
Ashlee Bishop:That wasn't even my case cuz we had puppies in garbage bags that
Ashlee Bishop:were sitting out in the sun.
Ashlee Bishop:So of course they were all bloated and it was bad.
Ashlee Bishop:And she's like, wow, that one's gonna be really hard to determine
Ashlee Bishop:a lot of information from.
Ashlee Bishop:So it was nice to be able to just quick text her and have her tell me that.
Ashlee Bishop:But, I'm hoping that working with a national organization will bring
Ashlee Bishop:some awareness to the severity of it.
Ashlee Bishop:I, every new officer, they usually get a couple hours
Ashlee Bishop:with me for training purposes.
Ashlee Bishop:I emphasize the link and the fact.
Ashlee Bishop:70% of domestic violence has an animal component to it.
Ashlee Bishop:If there's an animal in the home, um, and vice versa.
Ashlee Bishop:So, I've been trying to get our new officers to understand that as well
Ashlee Bishop:because there's been a lot of times where we actually got to tack on extra charges.
Ashlee Bishop:Guys stabbed his boyfriend in the chest.
Ashlee Bishop:He was high on meth, and when our, um, domestic violence team went in a
Ashlee Bishop:couple days later to do an interview.
Ashlee Bishop:She looked at the dog and the dog was limping.
Ashlee Bishop:And she goes, Hey, do you know what's up with the dog?
Ashlee Bishop:And he is like, oh yeah, that night, you know, my boyfriend kicked the dog.
Ashlee Bishop:Well, she added on a charge for that.
Ashlee Bishop:Yeah.
Ashlee Bishop:It wasn't anything severe.
Ashlee Bishop:And you know, the dog was just sore.
Ashlee Bishop:But that's an extra charge.
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:Is there, Ohio recently passed when the last couple of years
Dr G:passed the mandatory reporting law.
Dr G:Is there something like that in w.
Dr G:Yes,
Ashlee Bishop:I am not.
Ashlee Bishop:I'm not a hundred percent sure if it pertains to our veterinarians.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, And honestly, if it does, I know I'm gonna have to probably educate
Ashlee Bishop:them because many times I call and say, Hey, I need medical records for this
Ashlee Bishop:animal, or I need rabies information.
Ashlee Bishop:And they're like, um, I don't know if I can give you the,
Ashlee Bishop:no, you can give me that.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:There's no HIPAA offer
Ashlee Bishop:animals.
Ashlee Bishop:And I've had them say that.
Ashlee Bishop:I'm like, guys, really?
Dr G:There's, yeah.
Dr G:That's not a thing.
Dr G:Yeah, there's no HIPAA law.
Dr G:There's confidentiality of information for the clients, like personal
Dr G:information for the clients.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:But there's no HIPAA law for the animals.
Dr G:Yes.
Ashlee Bishop:Yeah.
Ashlee Bishop:So, um, but I actually recently, a couple of different times that's been
Ashlee Bishop:brought up and I, I don't know if Wisconsin pertains to veterinarians.
Ashlee Bishop:I know our vets in the area do contact me if they've got concerns so, I
Ashlee Bishop:think some of 'em just don't care.
Ashlee Bishop:Yeah,
Dr G:right.
Dr G:No, yeah.
Dr G:That's really good.
Dr G:Because one of the, one of the issues, and I would, I went in to testify as
Dr G:a proponent of the law passing because I have seen veterinarians that have
Dr G:witnessed incidents where it was definitely animal abuse or the animal
Dr G:was injured, and then the person.
Dr G:Mentioned that they were being abused and the veterinarian
Dr G:didn't wanna get involved.
Dr G:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:And they didn't wanna get involved because they didn't wanna be wrong, they
Dr G:didn't wanna get somebody in trouble.
Dr G:They were afraid of what was gonna happen to them and all of these things.
Dr G:And in, and in my mind, it's like, okay, well if you're not saying something and
Dr G:you're just sending this person back to an abuser, Whatever happens to them yet,
Dr G:you're not the person hurting them, but you didn't do anything to stop it, right?
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:So to me, that mandatory law was really important because it eliminates
Dr G:the, I don't wanna get involved.
Dr G:Now you have to get involved because if you don't get involved, then there's
Dr G:gonna be a fine, there's gonna be a penalty, there's gonna be something.
Dr G:And then it also gives you protections for if you're wrong, but you did
Dr G:it in good faith because, yep.
Dr G:I mean, we have seen cases that we think, oh, this.
Dr G:Not taking care of their animal.
Dr G:And then the animal control officer goes to the house and do a well check and
Dr G:everything's fine or there's something, you know, some reason to explain it.
Dr G:So they cannot come after me and say, oh, well you call the
Dr G:animal control officer on us.
Dr G:It's slander or whatever.
Dr G:No, it was in good faith.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:And it is, it is so important.
Dr G:One of the, one of the biggest concerns that I have heard from animal control
Dr G:officers that I've been dealing with lately is that they can't get their
Dr G:veterinarians to get involved in cases.
Dr G:Write, write letters, write reports, or they will write a report,
Dr G:but it's kind of flimsy, right?
Dr G:So it's very, it's very like, well, we couldn't really tell
Dr G:this or that or the other.
Dr G:And it's just, They, they don't wanna say anything that's gonna make
Dr G:'em have to go testify in court.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:So, um, but that is just so important to be able to, to take care of it.
Dr G:Um, so being, being a technician, clearly that helps you with
Dr G:being able to identify things.
Dr G:Do, do you have veterinarians, you said that you had that the veterinarians
Dr G:will call and make reports.
Dr G:Do you have some go-to veterinarians that are useful and.
Dr G:Help with writing reports or consultations or even going to court
Dr G:or do you meet a lot of resistance?
Ashlee Bishop:I haven't actually had to have any of them go to court yet.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, and again, that.
Ashlee Bishop:Kind of still comes back to me reaching out to the A S P C A.
Ashlee Bishop:I have a couple of vets that I think would, uh, be willing to go to court.
Ashlee Bishop:Problem is, is the majority of the time, they're not the ones that are available
Ashlee Bishop:at the time, I would need them to observe.
Ashlee Bishop:So they'd be going based off of somebody else's report.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, And even with the A S P C A, if I can't get the animal down to specifically
Ashlee Bishop:their forensic offices in Florida, if I can't get the animal there cuz it's still
Ashlee Bishop:alive or something, they'll walk the vets here through what needs to be done.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, and they'll contact them directly.
Ashlee Bishop:And then A S P C A writes the.
Ashlee Bishop:The medical report.
Ashlee Bishop:So if anybody has to testify, they would do it.
Ashlee Bishop:And that's just the last couple of years how I've been doing it.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I've had a couple of instances where we had one, uh, drug deal gone
Ashlee Bishop:bad that a dog got shot in, um, and.
Ashlee Bishop:We have an emergency clinic up here, and actually my, the officers, they're
Ashlee Bishop:like, Nope, your, your vehicle, you're not in your vehicle coming here yet.
Ashlee Bishop:We're on our way.
Ashlee Bishop:And they just ran the dog to the emergency clinic and I met them there.
Ashlee Bishop:And of course the clinic was incredibly busy that day.
Ashlee Bishop:So, um, while we were waiting for.
Ashlee Bishop:Owner to figure out what she wanted to do with the dog.
Ashlee Bishop:He, I mean, he was decompensating pretty quickly, but, um, I stood by and, you
Ashlee Bishop:know, I was taking his vitals, freeing up.
Ashlee Bishop:That's actually another thing where it's been nice to have my C V T because
Ashlee Bishop:the rest of the vet staff was able to do what they need to do for regular
Ashlee Bishop:clinic time, and I could monitor, I'm sticking with the evidence and.
Ashlee Bishop:Actually doing the tprs and everything that needed to be done until they figured
Ashlee Bishop:out what we were gonna do with the dog.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, so that has been beneficial, but I've also recently been
Ashlee Bishop:met with some resistance.
Ashlee Bishop:I had a cat that we really weren't sure if she had been intentionally.
Ashlee Bishop:Harmed or maybe hit by a car.
Ashlee Bishop:It was a very weird situation where, you know, I picked her up.
Ashlee Bishop:She had very neurologic signs.
Ashlee Bishop:She was doing that, that meow, you know, the meow?
Ashlee Bishop:Mm-hmm.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, so I have her in a towel.
Ashlee Bishop:I put her in a carrier.
Ashlee Bishop:I get out to the clinic and I get the carrier, and now
Ashlee Bishop:she's sitting upright and I'm.
Ashlee Bishop:I don't, I don't understand cuz I expected you to be dead by now.
Ashlee Bishop:You know?
Ashlee Bishop:Um, and that one, the clinic would not let me in back it.
Ashlee Bishop:They take all the animals in back and I was like, but guys, this, number one, this
Ashlee Bishop:cat may be considered evidence of a crime.
Ashlee Bishop:Number two, you know, I am A C V T and number three I'm
Ashlee Bishop:law enforcement, you know?
Ashlee Bishop:Right.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, But they absolutely would not allow me back with the cat.
Ashlee Bishop:Huh.
Ashlee Bishop:So I find that it definitely depends on the clinic.
Ashlee Bishop:It depends on who's working at the time.
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:That's what I mean.
Dr G:I, I guess from, from my standpoint, I've always been very animal welfare oriented.
Dr G:So kind of let's get everybody together to mm-hmm.
Dr G:Get things figured.
Dr G:But again, I've worked with veterinarians that don't wanna deal with it.
Dr G:Like you mentioned, that they don't wanna release information mm-hmm.
Dr G:Because of whatever confidentiality may be.
Dr G:And it becomes a problem now on the, on the other side of it.
Dr G:So we've been talking about kind of like the, the people that are harming.
Dr G:A lot of people think that animal control officers, all they do is
Dr G:bang on doors and take animals away and pick up dogs in the street.
Dr G:But my relationship with ACOs have been also on the side of well checks.
Dr G:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:So do you do a lot of well checks and can you tell me a case, a well
Dr G:check that has been, I don't know, significant or that stands out for you?
Ashlee Bishop:I do plenty of well checks, um, and.
Ashlee Bishop:I encourage education before removing an animal.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I, I get that a lot.
Ashlee Bishop:I'll even have people who, um, have a stray dog and I bring this stray dog
Ashlee Bishop:back home to them and they're like, oh, you're not gonna take my dog away
Ashlee Bishop:next if he gets out again, are you?
Ashlee Bishop:And I'm like, no.
Ashlee Bishop:That is like, it's, it's actually one of my pet peeves because people.
Ashlee Bishop:Thinking that I'm killing everything.
Ashlee Bishop:And yeah.
Ashlee Bishop:Am I involved with euthanizing some animals, you know,
Ashlee Bishop:especially dangerous animals.
Ashlee Bishop:Yes, I am.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, but that is not my goal.
Ashlee Bishop:That is not my plan.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I gotta say that a majority of.
Ashlee Bishop:My welfare checks, I, I wanna say 75% or more of them are actually,
Ashlee Bishop:um, people over exaggerating.
Ashlee Bishop:Mm-hmm.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, I have to have a lot of conversations with people of, this might not be how you
Ashlee Bishop:or I might keep our animals, whether it be tied up outside or not getting walked
Ashlee Bishop:every day, or, or things like that.
Ashlee Bishop:Might not be how you or I would do it, but that doesn't mean that it's
Ashlee Bishop:illegal and it doesn't mean that it's harmful to the animal either.
Ashlee Bishop:And I, I would say that that's probably more of what I get.
Ashlee Bishop:I have used welfare checks on animals though to help
Ashlee Bishop:other areas of my department.
Ashlee Bishop:Where we know that, you know, we've got some potential drug
Ashlee Bishop:abusers, we've got some concerns for the kids and things like that.
Ashlee Bishop:I sometimes have a better way of weaseling my way in on the animal side of it.
Ashlee Bishop:And I do wear a body cam.
Ashlee Bishop:and so I can get into those areas and not only do welfare checks on the animals,
Ashlee Bishop:but the other people in the household.
Ashlee Bishop:I can't think of any one in, in particular right off the top of my head, but I
Ashlee Bishop:have done that on several occasions.
Ashlee Bishop:Yeah.
Ashlee Bishop:We
Dr G:had a, you know, we had somebody kind of like how you
Dr G:mentioned that some people do it maliciously or not knowing or whatever.
Dr G:We had a lady that, that we, we were presented with a dog with a broken leg
Dr G:and then somebody called to say that.
Dr G:Owner is an elderly lady and the caretaker is abusive, and the
Dr G:caretaker broke the puppy's leg.
Dr G:So, um, thankfully it was in my county where I had a really
Dr G:great relationship with the aco.
Dr G:So I called him in and I explained to him what was going on, and
Dr G:I told him that the, what the lady was saying about how the.
Dr G:Leg was fractured, did not fit with the type of fracture, right?
Dr G:The story that the caretaker said actually did fit with the type of fracture.
Dr G:So he went over to her house and he sat down with the lady and the caretaker
Dr G:and the, he's a really nice sweet man.
Dr G:So I mean, he knocks on the door and he's like, Hey, I'm just here.
Dr G:Because the vet was concerned about, The puppy and wanted to make sure that
Dr G:you're okay, that you're gonna be able to take the puppy back after surgery.
Dr G:You know, like that kind of stuff.
Dr G:And they were so happy that he was there.
Dr G:Yeah, because he was, he was so nice and he was kind, and he cared about
Dr G:the dog and he cared about them, and he was able to go in there and
Dr G:evaluate this elderly lady to make sure that she was not being abused.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:Yep.
Dr G:Because to me, yeah, I care about the dog, but I care about the people as well, so
Dr G:I wanna make sure that there's not some older lady getting beaten up by her aid.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:And nobody knows about it.
Dr G:So, you know, it was, it was just a, a really good overall
Ashlee Bishop:experience.
Ashlee Bishop:Yeah.
Ashlee Bishop:I, and those are fantastic.
Ashlee Bishop:It makes me think about the other side of that.
Ashlee Bishop:Mm-hmm.
Dr G:Right?
Dr G:Where, where you get the
Ashlee Bishop:people that are, I don't abuse my animal, and why are you here?
Ashlee Bishop:And my neighbors need to mind their own damn business.
Ashlee Bishop:And, and they go off and, and I tend to take a step back and I look at 'em and I
Ashlee Bishop:said, Hey, listen, I can only do my job if things are brought to my attention now.
Ashlee Bishop:Right.
Ashlee Bishop:Today you.
Ashlee Bishop:You're right.
Ashlee Bishop:I have no concerns for your animal.
Ashlee Bishop:I'm glad your animal's being taken care of appropriately.
Ashlee Bishop:But this person that did call it in, called in something that
Ashlee Bishop:they thought was wrong, right?
Ashlee Bishop:If they stopped doing that, I'm gonna stop fighting out about ones where
Ashlee Bishop:something is wrong, and in trying to get them to realize, like, yes,
Ashlee Bishop:it's frustrating for you, but really these are the people I, I can't do
Ashlee Bishop:anything if I don't know about it.
Ashlee Bishop:Right.
Ashlee Bishop:No,
Dr G:exactly.
Dr G:No, exactly.
Dr G:I mean, I had, I, I worked at a hospital, so a lot of the calls that
Dr G:we were making were from animals that we were seeing at the hospital.
Dr G:And more than one time somebody came in and just started yelling at us
Dr G:saying, you called the cops on me.
Dr G:It's like, no, I didn't call the cops on you.
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:I called the animal control officer to do a well check to
Dr G:make sure your pet was okay.
Dr G:Yeah.
Dr G:And you're here, here you are taking care of your pet, so I guess it works.
Dr G:Right.
Dr G:But they were mad, but they were, they were coming back to.
Dr G:Do whatever it was that the pet needed.
Dr G:So, I mean, clearly.
Dr G:Yeah, clearly it works.
Dr G:The system broken as it may be
Ashlee Bishop:sometimes.
Ashlee Bishop:Sometimes it works, right?
Ashlee Bishop:Yeah, it's, I mean, I feel like people everywhere find reasons
Ashlee Bishop:to be angry one way or another.
Ashlee Bishop:Whether they're doing something good or doing something bad.
Ashlee Bishop:People tend to find reasons to be angry.
Dr G:Exactly.
Dr G:Well, this has been, this has been awesome chatting with you.
Dr G:So is there anything that you wanna to say as far as, you know, ACOs in
Dr G:general or any, any last comments?
Dr G:Um,
Ashlee Bishop:my only thing would be, you know what, we all have a hard
Ashlee Bishop:job, um, whether it be the vets in the clinic or ACOs out on the road and.
Ashlee Bishop:Um, everybody needs to take care of themselves.
Ashlee Bishop:Find somebody to talk to.
Ashlee Bishop:and I'll just put it out there.
Ashlee Bishop:You know, Dan and I have our podcast, the Animal Control Report.
Ashlee Bishop:And you can find us on Facebook, and if you need to talk, you wanna talk
Ashlee Bishop:stories, whatever, reach out to Dan and I because this is a fairly lonely career.
Ashlee Bishop:I'm the only one in my jurisdiction I've got.
Ashlee Bishop:Sheriffs deputies who take animal control stuff, but you know, we
Ashlee Bishop:don't, we don't connect as well.
Ashlee Bishop:I don't have a full department.
Ashlee Bishop:So, um, find somebody that you can connect with and if you need somebody, it's us.
Ashlee Bishop:We're here and stick together and do what we can for those that don't have a voice.
Dr G:People should definitely listen to your podcast because it's amazing.
Dr G:I mean, Out of all the animal podcasts that I've listened to, I've listened
Dr G:to way more episodes of you guys, like both of you have such a great,
Dr G:it's just a great combination.
Dr G:Thank you.
Dr G:So I really enjoy it and your guests are amazing, so people definitely
Dr G:should, should check it out.
Dr G:Thank you so much for, for being.
Dr G:And to all our listeners, thanks for listening and thanks for caring.
