Moving Animal Control to the Police Department
Merry Ellen served four years as the last civilian director of the Animal Control Division during the 1980s, a period she recalls as the best years of her professional life. Appointed by then-County Executive Neal Potter, she coordinated her work with a contract administrator who managed the legal and fiscal agreement the county had with MCHS to manage the county animal shelter.
ACD was transferred to the MC Police Department and renamed the Animal Services Division. This transfer was a good fit organizationally. “Animal control issues such as enforcement and investigation were typically handled by the police department,” Merry Ellen said, “so this move made sense to me.” She strongly advocated for the animal rescue police officers to get periodic animal training worked into their schedules so that they would better understand how to handle rescued animals properly. A training schedule was implemented soon after.
Merry Ellen fondly remembers her tenure as ACD director and a strong working relationship with the Montgomery County Humane Society. “I adored the Humane Society because of all the dedicated people working there.” She also recalls that the kennel staff had a very positive attitude and was very supportive of her work in animal control. “I give them lots of credit for what they accomplished, given their challenging circumstances and resources.”
Shelter Philosophy
“A shelter is a reflection, for good or bad, on its community,” Merry Ellen said. “The shelter staff should be caring and knowledgeable about the animals and the physical plant should be clean and sanitary. The (MCHS) shelter staff is fantastic. However, in my humble opinion, MC needs a new and improved shelter facility. This is a wealthy area and I don’t understand why the powers that be don’t provide more resources for it.”
In fact, she recalls that when she headed ACD, funds were so tight that even small items like office supplies were donated to the shelter. Now, if the shelter building is not improved, she fears, it could end up compromising the safety and welfare of the animals.
Her sense of what the priorities should be includes:
- Construction of a new state-of-the-art shelter building. The current facility is more than 30 years old and in desperate need of repair.
- Free or pay-what-you-can-afford spay-neuter services. This would take care of the chronic cat population problem.
- Higher salaries for employees. Current salaries are very low compared other non-profit pay scales.
- Expanded humane education programs for the community. Classes should start early and be offered often, when children are still young so that the messages are learned earlier and become part of their moral character.
“It’s crucial that citizens be made aware that it is not socially acceptable to be cruel to animals,” Merry Ellen said.
Farm Animal Rescue at the Shelter
While she was ACD’s director she wanted to build a barn behind the shelter on Rothgeb Drive to house rescued farm animals. The county council denied her request because it would cost too much money to build and maintain. Their priority was to use county funds for rescue purposes rather than building this structure. To this day, Merry Ellen regrets not pushing harder for the barn.
A Happy Ending Rescue
A Bethesda mail carrier once noticed a bad odor emanating from a house to which he was delivering mail. He notified the ASD about the situation. When officers arrived at the house, they discovered an elderly woman living alone with 40 cockapoos – both dead and alive – in her house. The living dogs were brought to the shelter and the old woman was put in a nursing home. Her house was condemned.
Many of the shelter’s volunteers came in after hours to “clean up” these dogs. The clean-up took so long that some volunteers were at the shelter until 4 a.m. “A front page article in the Montgomery Journal appeared soon after the incident, recounting the story and the selfless dedication of these volunteers,” she recalled. For their hard work, the volunteers were recognized at a special ceremony by then-County Executive, Neal Potter, at Rockville City Hall.
Getting More Animals Adopted
Merry Ellen pointed to two new strategies that helped significantly increase the number of animals getting adopted.
First was the Humane Society’s purchase of the animal Mobile Adoption Unit (MAU) van. For special events the van travels to local commercial neighborhoods with adoptable animals on board. “Going out into the community or visiting a pet retail store like PetSmart with the MAU is a much better adoption tactic. Rather than having the public come to the shelter, we began to realize that by going out to where the adopters are, we got more animals adopted.”
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