[Music] all right but not gonna share a park lamb here and thank you welcome back to our podcast we are we talk about things all Pinal County and promoting Pinal County today we have an awesome guest Michael che the director of the Pinal County Animal Control thank you for being here today thank you for having me actually we're in your office so they were having us okay everybody was quite excited that you were coming today well we love it we love getting around the county and seeing everybody mm-hmm and you do a good job here how long have you been the director of the animal control almost four years that's a long time yeah yeah well been fun it really has I really really love my job I feel fortunate I get to do something I love and you know I as a sheriff I appreciate the partnership a lot of eight counties across this country the sheriff is actually in charge of animal control right and I've spoken with other sheriffs and I've expressed how much I'm glad that I'm not in charge of animal control right yeah because this is a big job I really do feel bad for some of the agencies that are under the Sheriff's Department or under a police department because um you know you already have your hands full with the police department and the last thing you need is to have to deal with the animal side of it too and I feel that sometimes you know the animal part of it may suffer because they don't have as much time to put towards the animals oh yeah so I'm glad that you know we have a partnership but you're good at what you do and we're good at what we do you are you are we work together not you know separate which is good let's talk about audre first so people can get to know you because we do this so that people in the county will get to know who represents them who's running the different departments where are you from okay I was born in Northern California in the Bay Area I moved here in 98 with my then-boyfriend but now my husband um we've been living here since 98 I worked for Safeway for a very very very long time I was working graveyards I wasn't enjoying what I was doing I wanted to do something where I felt like I was making a difference so I started volunteering at an animal shelter in Apache Junction I live in Mesa and went for a ride along with an animal control officer and after that day I was hooked and I wanted to be an animal control officer and I basically networked and networked and networked and finally got a job here at Pinal County as an officer left my job at Safeway made way less money as an animal control officer but really did enjoy what I was doing so I was smiling because that's a lot like my story I really I had never thought about me at a police officer I own my own business and my neighbor says hey I'll just come on a ride-along and he'd been asking me and finally one night I did and we ended up chasing some guy who had run from somebody's house he had broken in there and we and I found him in a little beat-up trailer mm-hmm and I'm just on a ride-along and I came home and I was yep and same thing yes I took a pay cut yeah I you know it was a buddy in the long term look where I'm at now and I got me into something I'm passionate about the last way that's kind of cool cuz it I'm sure you've probably found your passion for animals that you probably already had but that helped you find it and really know that you can do this for a living yeah it was that was it I was hooked and I'm I never looked back since so how long were you an actual animal control officer before yeah actor I was an officer I started in 2011 and I got promoted to a supervisor in 2013 and then the former director left kind of quickly took another job and she recommended putting me in charge I was a supervisor putting me in charge as an interim director while they were looking for somebody else and then they never did look for anybody else they just said okay you're doing okay I guess you know you haven't burned the building down okay so put you in there so yeah I became official like six months after she left so I remember you when I came out here and I think was in Florence where you responded to a call I was on a fight cause like I don't want to deal with this dog and you came out you just handled him the dog didn't bother you one bit you went in you dealt with it I remember that I that specifically the dog's name was Samson it was a blue nose pit bull that had been a kid he was on his property and I remember you watching me through the fence and you're like are you crazy you're just gonna walk on that already and take that dog I'm like yeah you know so ya know I remember that that was funny because the first time I met you you're like I've met you before and then yeah yeah it was the click oh I remember that because I remembered it too so I mean you were a great officer and so I think it obviously it was a good fit to come here and be the director yeah and I like the fact that I was an officer so I kind of know what's going on I'm not I'm not somebody that was just an administrative person or something and then came into animal control that's how I feel mm-hmm like I wasn't a administrator forever yeah I have a deputy's heart and police officers heart and I feel like that's what's translated and I think you're probably the same where your people respect you because you know the job I've done the job so I think it's a good fit now do with this job what's the hardest part about this show um you know I wish that animal cruelty had more teeth I wish the laws had more teeth they really don't and you know it's like you you do you put your heart and soul into something trying to help an animal and you know the person may get a slap on the wrist a fine of a hundred bucks or something and you know and you really put your heart and soul into it so it can get kind of discouraging and of course the other part of it is the euthanasia part you know but we don't do as much euthanasia as we did when I first started so I mean that part has kind of you know it's really not an issue anymore is it used to be but the part about trying to help animals and you know you want justice for this animal or something because you saw and suffering and and sometimes they died and you know there was nothing you could do for it and that tears you you know really does tear you up and it tears up everybody and I asked you this back there and I think a lot of the listeners would probably have the same question how do you do this job knowing because you walk back there in the kennels and and especially if you're an animal lover dogs cats how do you do this every day and and still you know stay positive right I look at it like I look at it like these animals are going to feel loved they're gonna know what it's like to be loved by a human being and feel be petted and touched and walked and given treats and if they're here for a week or a year they're gonna know that we're here to love them and they're gonna get to experience that at least while they're here as our guests you know and so I don't look at it like it's a sad thing I look at it like it's a it's a good thing because we all love them and we want to show them that we're gonna love them you know yeah so that's kind of how I look at it well and that's the way you would have to look at me and we kind of do the same thing in law enforcement where people say well how do you go deal with this every day well somebody has to right somebody has to I don't see I look at your guys's job and I don't know how you could do that job like seeing a little child that may have passed away or something that must weigh heavy on you guys you know really heavy on you guys and I look at so I look at that aspect of your guys's job when you look at it like the animals you know they can't speak for themselves where their voices and you know we have some bad days you know we do but whenever you have that one good day you always forget all those past bad days so that's kind of nice yeah the good things they make up for those things mm-hmm so now how many employees do you have 32 and how many of the 32 are out at our actual animal control officers there are I want to say 12 officers we have or maybe even 11 we have five in the southwest area then we have five in the north and we have two in the East area like Oracle deadly bill so if somebody's wanting to get into this profession what does an animal control officer start off pay wise and are you hiring right now we are not hiring officers right now we're fully staffed it starts off I want to say around sixteen something an hour which is not the greatest but it's way better than it used to be thanks to the board giving us all raises and bumping us up to the minimum week we were only making when I was an officer we're making like 13 you know so so it pays about 16 something an hour and we really want you to have some sort of animal handling experience at least at the very least you know we get a lot of people that apply from everywhere do see people that were ranchers or people that worked at Petsmart you know or whatever it just depends on the person one way to get your foot in the door though and I'm an attest to that is volunteering you know volunteer here and then you're gonna be one of the first people to know when we're gonna have an opening gonna make sense if you're gonna have an inside track we know them and we know if they're capable of doing the job and what what kind of a asset they would be to us as an employee we just hired an animal control officer you know a year ago she started as a volunteer and she was she rocked it as a volunteer so when she decided to be an animal I applied for a CEO we were stoked you know yeah and she's doing great so you're speaking of volunteers so if somebody wanted to volunteer where can they go sign up to volunteer they can go to our Facebook page and ask about volunteering they can go to our website the Pinal County Animal Control website there's a volunteer application they could come in they have to be 18 years old in order to volunteer by themselves you know if they want to volunteer they have to in they're under 18 they can but they have to bring a guardian with them and the guardian has to be with them the whole time that they're here you know they go through an animal basic animal handling class we ask them what they're interested in volunteering with dogs cats do they want to walk them do they want cuddle kittens you know what do you want to do so and there's a need you have a need for volunteers all the time always especially because we're in the middle of nowhere so we have a hard time staffing volunteers because it's such a far Drive and I did notice when we were walking back there you had a couple prisoners from the prison's here as well yeah we do we have about anywhere from four to eight inmates that work here they clean the dog and cat kennels for us and they're a huge help all I can imagine is huge help and they love it here they get to you know play with puppies and dogs and cats and you know they we treat them very respectfully and they're a big part of the operation if we didn't have them we we wouldn't be able to make it you know it would be too much on the kennel staff and I and I we've you mentioned something they they love it mm-hmm I've said when you go to jail in prison one of the things we love is contact human contact right now right and when you go to prison typically you you lose that physical contact right we have started bringing up to bring dogs into the jail to see the veterans we've and the female prisoners really love it yes and it's because they get that physical interaction even though it's a dog they're getting that physical interaction right and I can see how the inmates here would get that same interaction that they they're missing once they go to jail in prison I actually have taken I took a dark twice to your female jail out there and did like a presentation and they loved it they loved it well we've evened uh we I know you and I have talked about doing some other things working it and so the people who put out county know I mean we're committed to trying to figure out how we can help how we can introduce more programs I know you for us it's you know staffing levels aren't always right but now speaking of that mm-hmm we got an event coming up yes so we talked about partnering and we were making it happen we thank you because you've made some things happen it'll gonna make this I think a success so out so you want to tell the people a little bit about what we got going on yeah yeah definitely on the 17th of November it's a Saturday from 10:00 to 4:00 we're going to have clear the shelter event with you guys the Sheriff's Department and we're going to offer free adoptions for every animal in the building so any animal you know doesn't matter if it's cat dog puppy kitten will be fee waived other than if you dog and you live in Pinal County you still have to pay a $15.00 license fee but you know they will be altered which means spay or neutered they'll be microchip they'll be rabies vaccinated they've already got their vaccinations upon impound and it's gonna be a good way to hopefully clear the shelter because we have over 300 dogs right now and over 70 cats so we really need to clear up especially the dogs some of them have been here for like a year they don't get along with other animals so it's harder to adopt them out but that doesn't mean that they need to die just because they don't get along they need to be the only animal so we're really hoping that some of those dogs are long timers let's get out of here so if you're listening out there now County Saturday to the 17th come on down we're going to be doing food from 11:00 to 1:00 do I have some other things here I heard you're having bouncy house we're gonna try to get the balance houses yeah now we're talking to some of the other part departments in the county about setting up some booths but the event is going all day all day yeah even though you guys are the Sheriff's Department will be here from 11:00 to 1:00 and serving you're gonna be doing barbecue and it's going to be free with a donation of a collar a leash a blanket a toy any kind of a donation you get some free food you guys you're sponsoring that your charity which we really appreciate because we've never had anybody do that for us before so partnering with you guys and having this huge event and then also offering free adoptions which we've never done before for every animal in the building we're hoping that this is gonna be a mega mega mega thing you know and you know even if we don't get the what we want this time right I we talked before we started this podcast need to do this at least once a year right and maybe even depending on the success of it twice a year right to try to keep these animals in homes because it is you walk back there and that's what I wanted to do is get people here give them an opportunity to walk back there and see if you have a heart mm-hmm I gotta have dogs at my house I don't have cats and a lot of is just because we are so busy II got my wife and I both work you just don't have to right and I will I don't want to but my kids are gonna try to convince me to take a dog that day I'm sure but uh but there are a lot of people though that don't can't afford to actually buy a dog right but this will give them that opportunity right and that being said I really hope that they don't take it as oh my gosh it's a free adoption let's take advantage of that and and not think it through you know what I mean because we don't want a lot of the animals coming back you know we want them to stay in their home forever so if you are going to come and you are going to adopt please keep in mind that you know a lot of times it's an impulse thing because it's free but we want you to really think about it also it's very important that if they do have other animals at home they bring them that day to do meet and greets with any of the dogs that don't want to talk because I'm because it's a free adoption day I am going to stress that if they have other animals at home and they don't bring them we're not going to be adopting out an animal until they bring their dog to do a meet and greet it's very important that's very important that's very very important so the other thing is is I was able to secure if you're a fan of life PD and you watch it I'll be here sheriff lamb but also I was able to get deputy Craig mile and his dog Laura and they're from Greene County Missouri and Sheriff are not they will also be here that day at least between 11:00 and 1:00 and probably between probably 10:00 and 2:00 they'll be here me you could come out meet them take a picture with Craig my landlord and we just want people to come out have fun time but also we want to find some homes for these dollars I want to find some homes and if they can't adopt a dog or a cat maybe they can volunteer you know sign up to volunteer so I mean we really really really want to get people out here to see Pinal County Animal Care and Control because you know a lot of people don't even know we exist out here so or they have this horrible idea of what we are you know and I I used to call them doggies you know because I've had email my dog got a jail twice telling got elected said oh yeah I was here it cost me 60 bucks each time so until that dog don't run away yes yeah so I mean a lot of people don't know so you know we want them to come down and take pride in your community you don't take pride in your animal care and control we're not the big bad you know pound as we are normally you know and I am you don't get that sense again I'm walking through here and once again that's one of the misnomers then we hope to dispel right by getting people down here so and and for a lot of people this is the center of the count mm-hmm this is 11 mile corner so all the addresses are pretty have to come off of here so when you talk about the center of the county that's here so we've tried to make it to where people can all come from all over right now animal control it's not just dogs and cats like how often do you get called out for snakes or coyotes or some of those things we do get those calls occasionally but we really don't do a whole lot with livestock and stuff like that now you talked about possibly some day doing some sort of livestock like a ranger livestock to thing we can go out and we'll assess a situation if we have like a cruelty call on livestock or something but we technically can't really do anything with it we don't really have anywhere to put horses or cows or goats or pigs or anything though we've had them here before you know we will take them if there's a dire need to and then we try to get them out to a rescue or Southwest Wildlife or something snakes will do snakes and skunks and stuff like that but not very often but we do get those occasional calls when I was an officer I had to go out to the jail the prison in Florence because there was an owl in one of the k-9 k9 pens and the dog was freaking out and the people were freaking out so I had to go and get the barn owl and we ended up sending it to Southwest Lao Wildlife yeah a lot of those other animals are a lot easier to find homes for with all the other organizations out there there's sanctuaries that will take them so yeah yeah so as far as what do you see I think people are probably want to know what's the breed that you see most come into the pit bulls fornix but that's not because of the dog that's more because that just seems to be what a lot of people are wanting to breed these days yeah they think that they're going to be a backyard breeder and they're gonna get branch off for breeding their pitbull puppies and then their pit bull puppies end up growing into you know more so of an adult and then they can't get rid of them because they're not cute anymore you know like puppies are and then they just let them go or you know they they just they don't have a grip on reality and reality is everybody's thinking the same way you know so and then you know pit bulls are associated with being you know tough or you know like for protection or whatever else you know mean they make you look cool or whatever and really pimples are just basically the most loyal dog to people but they get a bad rap and that's what I was gonna say is I've heard that they are extremely loyal they protect your home which is what you want sure they're friendly and they're not any more vicious than any other dogs I would go in a kennel with a pitbull before I would go in a kennel with a chihuahua because chihuahuas can be mean and they're like little ankle-biters so you know pimples don't scare me whatsoever I have one I adopted one from here he's the biggest baby ever I know and that's what I've seen I've seen so many people with pitbulls that I think that's a misnomer as well but right that people think that they're just aggressive died when in reality they're just lovable dogs there you can train any dog to be aggressive and if you want to sure yeah cats are these harder to adopt out or are they easier we don't adopt out a whole lot of cats because we have rescue partners that actually come and rescue our cats and take them to their facilities so we don't have as many cat adoptions as we do dog adoption adoptions but we do cat adoptions you know every year it's just more so rescue comes and takes the cats from us in which we're very fortunate to have that's good plus we have a really grand we got from an organization forty NRS which means that we go out in communities and entrap feral cats and then we fix them ear tip them vaccinate them and turn them back out into the community so that they're not going to die but they're not necessarily going to procreate either so we're trying to get a grip on the feral cat community because it's out of hand out of hand well you're doing a great job we want to thank you for what you do and I we wanted to give the people in our county an opportunity to understand better who you were what animal control does where they're at who they're under mm-hmm it looks like a lot of people think the sheriff's which you're not you're your own direct you're the director under the county manager like everybody else so you do a great job I'm excited for this event remember folks November 17 all day free and free adoptions but we'll have some food here to around the middle of the day love into one right yeah mm-hmm and if you want to volunteer they can come down and help ya that day as well yep yep anybody that wants to come down and volunteer I think it would be great to sign up before the event so that we could get you trained but definitely we can use as many volunteers as possible so any last words of wisdom words of wisdom okay I don't know about that I I just want everybody to know that you know we're we are here to help the community you know we have funding to help people get their animals fixed if that's something that they want to do and they can't afford it we're not necessarily here to be punitive you know we're trying to work with the community and we're really trying to like help the community in any way that we can because if we ultimately help them with their animals then their animals won't end up here you know and that's what we want we want or I want to be out of a job they know that's the goal of this event we're doing is they're the shelter we want to clear the shelter we had a lot I was gonna ask you what what our goal would be for that day but the goal is to clear the shell to show get every dog every cat out of here right and how many real quick how many channels do you have we have a hundred and fifty two kennels we have over 320 folks please come down on the 17th yeah this is a great opportunity now normally real quick normally what is an adoption con the adoption fee for dogs and puppies is 140 and the adoption fee for a cat is 65 so you're saving a ton of money if they can come down that day so thank you for doing it thanks for you know it's gonna be fun and I got more these are usually off on Saturdays and they're like no I want to work that day just because you guys are doing this with us so yeah it's gonna be fun we're excited it's gonna be we hope to be it that it's a big success and even if it's not we're gonna keep doing it so that people can get used to it right hell with it that we're here to help them right thanks all right thank you [Music]