Hi, I'm Karen Neimire. I'm a humane officer with the Coral Springs Police Humane Unit and I've been with the city for 13 years. Hi, I'm Monica with the Coral Springs Humane Unit. I'm the senior humane officer and I've been with the city for 16 years. So, some of the types of calls that we handle here um we deal with both domestic and wildlife. So domestic animals would include dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, um small animals like rabbits, guinea pigs. For the wildlife, it could be a little bit of anything from alligators to snakes, raccoons, possums. Uh also some exotics that are let loose. So you never know what we might be handling. Some of the type of calls that we get, um it takes two people. So when we ride together, it actually helps us um not only for safety reasons. Um for example, we have a call where it's going to take two of us to catch a duck with a lure in its mouth. Ducks, any type of birds, are not easy to catch with one person. Um usually they tend to fly away. Um, the only time we euthanize an animal is if it's a wild animal that's sick or injured. Our domestic animals, we attempt to find homes. And to do that, we will do everything possible. We contact uh all the local shelters. We do social media and we have a lot of followers that follow us both on Facebook and Instagram that share our posts and really get it out there. It's not unusual for a post to reach a thousand people in a short time. We also, if we have to, we'll go door todoor, check neighbors houses where the dog was found. We'll put up um found posters of the dogs. We will also check our systems to see if we've ever had a dog that matches that description in that area. And uh we do everything we can to get them back home. Right now, we're going to a call of an animal inside of a chimney. So, he's been waiting on us. It's been quite busy this morning. Right now, we're going into the home. Um, he has an animal stuck in the chimney. We're going to see what it is. He thinks it might be an iguana. We're going to help him remove it. Nope. Making all kind of noise. Yeah, he's crawled back up. Yeah. Whatever it is that's gone all the way up through the tube. So, whatever animal was down in his fireplace has gone back up the trap and back up the chimney. um the chimney curves so we can't see what's beyond that point. So we did advise him that if it does come back into the chimney, close the trap, which will trap it down into the bottom. Call us and we'll come get it. Whatever it is, there is a chance it could have gone all the way up and back out the chimney. So part of our job is to pick up deceased animals on the roadway, uh both wild and domestic. Um if an animal dies on private property, it would be the property owner's responsibility, but if it's something on the road, we do go out and pick it up. Um, right now we're on the call to a deceased cat that's on the side of the road and we're going to go see what we have. So, we're picking up a dead otter that was obviously struck by a vehicle. We have a lot of otter in Coral Springs. We thought the call came in as that it was a cat and it's not, but normally when it's a domestic animal, we'll check them for microchips. So, [Music] oh, once we get the animals off the road, uh, we have we bring them back to the office where we have um a section where we keep them frozen and then we have a company that comes and picks them up. So some of the other things that we do that we really enjoy is we have programs where we go out to schools for career days for um different events that they have. Sometimes it's for take your child to work day. We also do the city events like bites and sips uh the camp out Coral Springs. We go there, we educate about different pets, about care of pets, microchips, um what to do if your pet's lost. We show them alternate pets because not everyone should have a dog. Um so we let them know what other kinds of pets that they can have that would be good for them. And it's something we really enjoy is working with the kids and working with the families to try to make sure that they've got the kind of pet that's right for them. The best part of this job is knowing that I I made a difference um in both people's lives and animals lives. Um, we can go home every day knowing that someone's life is a little better because we were here. Um, and it's been proven that animals in the workplace improve mental health, improve productivity, improve wellness, and you know, we have that every day. So, we have the best job in the world. You know, I wish everybody could have that kind of joy and and wellness in their workplace because it really does add a lot to our life. exiting of the uh