Calling animal control

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

COEUR d'ALENE — He is on the phone talking to a dog owner. The morning sun is edging deliberately through an achingly blue sky, but a sense of urgency is in the air.

Two big dogs without collars slipped out the door of a house in Coeur d'Alene Place and disappeared, a man on the other end explains.

Jon Beamesderfer, Coeur d'Alene's animal control officer, lends calm to the discussion.

He asks questions.

Beamesderfer, one of a team of one part-time and two full-time animal control officers under the banner of the Coeur d'Alene Police Department, is charged with keeping canine peace in the city.

He finds lost dogs, catches and transports dogs at large, vicious dogs or scared dogs, writes citations, apprises owners of complaints, and deals with a variety of animals that are not dogs.

Most of the calls he handles in a 10-hour day, however, pertain to dogs at large or barking dogs. Occasionally, he helps police remove from a car a dog whose owner is going to jail, or a seemingly mean dog who won't let police serve a warrant. He takes the dogs to the Kootenai County Humane Society with which the department has a contract. It allows the Humane Society to charge the city $85 for housing a dog if the owner has not retrieved it in five days, and $20 every day thereafter the owner doesn't pick up the dog. Lower fees apply to cats, rabbits, ferrets and birds, and group rates apply for litters. A special $15 disposal fee applies if the animal is dead.

If the dog is picked up, the owner pays the tab. If not, the city pays.

“We eat it,” said police Capt. Dave Hagar.

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there.

Thoroughness is necessary in this profession.

“What is the breed of the first dog?” Beamesderfer asks.

If he doesn't recognize the breed, he has an app on his phone that shows a picture.

“A lot of them are mixed dogs,” he said. “Very rarely do we find a full-breed dog.”

He runs through a list of questions with the owners regarding collars, whether the dogs are microchipped, and he taps the keys on the laptop as he begins writing a report inside his white Ford pickup with an Animal Control logo before dropping the big question.

“What are their names?” he asks.

Odie and Mojo, the man on the other end of the conversation confides.

“They watch 'Powerpuff Girls,' huh?” Beamesderfer laughs, referring to popular television cartoon characters. He tells the owner he will call as soon as the dogs are located.

There's a sigh of relief. But that's not the end of it. He has another call.

“It's non-stop all day,” Beamesderfer said.

That is why the city, which until last year had one full-time animal control officer and a part-timer, bolstered the force by adding another full-time position.

“This is an outdoorsy community and people like to take their dogs with them,” Hagar said.

The result can be good or problematic.

“We get a fair number of complaints,” Hagar said.

The complaints reached a crescendo a few years ago when hikers on Tubbs Hill pointed out dog owners were using the city attraction as a potty place for pets. Parks too, and beaches had problems. Owners used them to let their pups run amok. Call volumes increased.

Beamesderfer, who has a long history in animal control — he attended an animal control academy and previously worked as a part-time dog-catcher for the city — was bumped to full time.

He has caught cats and peacocks, many dogs, and one pig he remembers with particular fondness.

“We called it Kevin Bacon,” he said.

Lately, he said, downtown Coeur d'Alene is seeing a rabbit problem. People tend to adopt bunnies around Easter and after a few weeks or months, owners set them free.

“They grow, they are let go and pretty soon Mother Nature takes over,” he said.

His days are often divided into a slow and steady stream of calls to a frantic buzz, often around 5 p.m. when pet owners get home and air out their pooches.

“I call it the witching hour,” he said. “People get home, walk their dogs or let them off the leash and a bit of a tangle goes on.”

His biggest concern is public safety, he said, so he keeps moving, patrolling areas he knows are rife with pets and complaints, and he watches his car monitor for calls.

“We try to handle them as fast as we can and get there as fast as we can,” he said.

Call volumes are weather-related. In summer, when skies are clear and the sun blisters the sidewalk, pet owners routinely violate leash laws, park and beach ordinances and ride-along laws.

Dogs must be on a leash in the city, are not allowed in parks or on beaches, and owners will likely hear from Animal Control if they leave a pet in a car on a sunny day, even if the A/C is humming and a window is cracked, he said.

“Usually it's 30 degrees hotter in a car,” he said. “So if it's 60 degrees outside, it's 90 degrees inside a vehicle and the dog starts panting.”

It is not illegal to have dogs in vehicles, but it is illegal to stress a pet.

In his years as a dog catcher he has been scratched, nipped and barked at.

He carries an aluminum control stick with a loop used to lasso animals, pepper spray and a small solid, night stick. The pepper spray is effective on charging animals, he said, but the control stick is made for it.

“I swing it like a bat,” he said. Even animal control officers are allowed to protect themselves.

His worst injury was sustained chasing a big, vicious dog over a 6-foot fence and into a school playground. When the fence collapsed Beamesderfer hurt his back, but he managed to catch the dog, he said.

On Friday morning, he managed to locate and return Odie and Mojo as well. Coeur d'Alene resident Christina Casko had called police when the dog duo showed up in her neighborhood.

“We gave them some treats and water,” Casko said. “They're so sweet.”

Beamesderfer heaved the shepherd-looking mixes into the back of his pickup truck and turned on a fan before driving them to a nearby neighborhood where Matt Morgan waited. They are his roommate's dogs, Morgan said, but he was glad to see them.

“I feel better now,” Morgan said.

The sun climbed — and, parked in the shade under a residential maple, Beamesderfer took another call.

Fines for letting your pet run amok

City dog ordinances cover a variety of scenarios from the odious — the city has a rule against not cleaning up dog doo — to animals in parks.

Although city Animal Control officers prefer to mediate and educate the public, sometimes citations are issued, Animal Control Officer Jon Beamesderfer said.

Here's the law and the penalties involved:

Animals disturbing neighbors — $50

Animals on public property — $50

Animal waste disposal — $50

Animals in parks — $50

Dogs are not allowed in City Parks. Dogs are allowed on-leash on the Centennial Trail, the Prairie Trail, the Atlas Trail, the Kathleen Trail, the hiking trails on Tubb's Hill and on the Canfield Mountain trails. Dogs are also allowed on-leash on the paths in City Park, McEuen Park, and Riverstone Park.

Dog Parks are located at Cherry Hill Park, McEuen Park and Central Bark Dog Park at 3889 W. Nez Perce Road.