The Best Friends Podcast Episode 40
A far cry from the days of being seen as the “dogcatchers,” today’s highly skilled animal care and control officers are on the front lines in our communities, helping animals in need. In the last few years, as sheltering has seen progress towards connecting lifesaving to public safety, there’s a need to restructure the role animal services has in helping the pets and pet owners in their communities.
An animal services officer is often the largest touch-point to the community for a shelter and their work is so much more than impounding pets and writing citations. They know that an owned pet in need usually means there's also a person who needs help.
How can municipal agencies rethink their approach and implement new strategies that are support-based to improve the lives of animals and humans alike?
Click here to check out all the episodes from the podcast.
RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE
- Punishment to Support: The Need to Align Animal Control Enforcement with the Human Social Justice Movement
- Institute for Human-Animal Connection
- Best Friends Town Hall: The Human Connection: save more lives by building stronger relationships in communities
- Best Friends Editorial: Field Services: Identifying Data Worth Collecting
- Animal Care and Control Resources
- Beyond Cages: Animal Law and Criminal Punishment
- Humane Animal Control Manual
- NACA website
Sloane Hawes, MSW
research associate, Institute for Human Animal Connection
Sloane manages a social science research agenda examining the human community factors that inform companion animal welfare, with a particular interest in how animal welfare challenges intersect with human social and environmental justice issues.
She earned her MSW and Animal-Assisted Social Work certificate from the University of Denver's Graduate School of Social Work. She completed her undergraduate coursework at the University of San Diego, receiving a BA in Ethnic Studies and Psychology.
Episode Transcript