In a follow-up to our Alert to St. Louis area residents about the demise of Animal Control in the City of St. Louis, the Alliance has been assured by City officials that they are seeking to immediately hire four additional Animal Control Officers and in July there will be funding to hire an additional three ACOs. Currently the City of St. Louis only has ONE full-time Animal Control Officer.
When we first asked Alliance supporters in the St. Louis region to contact City officials and request that the City make Animal Control a priority, the Department of Health responded that the Alliance’s assertion that the City only has one remaining full-time officer was incorrect as the City currently has three full-time officers.
Unfortunately, the Department of Health’s response to our Alert was disingenuous as the Department of Health included one officer who had been called up in the Air Force Reserves last November, and has yet to return, and was counting another officer who had resigned in May.
Subsequent to that denial by the Health Department, City officials agreed to meet with the Alliance and discuss our concerns on the staffing of Animal Control. We were fortunate to have state Senator Karla May join us at this meeting to show her support for the Alliance's concerns and our request for more officers. We emphasized that Animal Control receives dozens of calls per day and that the Department needs more officers to respond to complaints of animal abuse and neglect as well as animals running at large. Callers to Animal Control were often only receiving voicemail, and messages were not being returned, and callers never informed if their complaint/request was being investigated or addressed.
We are somewhat encouraged by the response from City officials. Increasing the number of officers has been a long time in coming. We are hoping that the City not only follows through on its promise to hire additional staff but that it takes the necessary measures to retain new officers. We encouraged the City to provide adequate resources to maintain professional and competent animal control officers. We are concerned over the low morale of previous staff that has led to a substantial decrease in officers.
We thank you for reaching out and letting City officials know that citizens do care about the welfare of the animals. Your efforts are making a difference. You can be assured that we will closely monitor the response from the City to ensure that our concerns are adequately addressed. We will be sure to reach out to you once again if we need your help to hold City officials accountable to ensure that the welfare of the animals in the City of St. Louis are adequately protected.
