Ear on Chicago; Putting on the Dog: The Evanston Dog Catcher

That's the barking of the dogs at the Evanston City Dog Pound. Today we're doing the story of the dog catcher. It's no longer called a dog catcher. We're calling them in Evanston today the control warden. And the control warden, the animal control warden of the city of Evanston, is Mr. Halger Hill. And Mr. Hill is going to tell us the story of the Evanston City Dog Pound on Iran Chicago today. Now in order to do this story with Mr. Hill, we have taken our tape recorder to his office, which is located in the dog pound, just a door away from where the dogs are located. This is located also in the corner of Clark and Maple in the city of Evanston. Now there are two ways in which Mr. Hill works. He can either go out in his truck and look for the dogs, which he does practically every day, or he may get a telephone call from some dog owner in the city of Evanston, who may have lost his dog. Then of course there are always dog bite complaints, which he has to answer, and he goes out on those. There are a number of stray dogs which

have been brought into the dog pound today, and we're going to go out there and talk to Mr. Hill about how he brought those dogs in, and what he does with them once they're in the dog pound. We also are going to go out on the truck later on, and just a minute, here's a phone call now, perhaps Mr. Hill is getting a complaint right now. Hello. Hello. Hi, Doxham. Hi, Doxham. Hi, Doxham. And do you have a collar and tags on at the time he left home?

I see. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We'll take your information here, and be out looking for it. If we run across it, we'll call you back. Greenleaf 5 -7 -8 -4 -1. All right, sir, and in the meantime, I'd advise you to call the Skoky police, in case it's gotten out towards Skoky. No, sir. We'll check in that vicinity and leave word over at the police station. If anyone sees the dog, we'll call you. You're welcome, sir. I

think you could hear that conversation between Mr. Hill and a man who called in who has lost his dog. Mr. Hill, what was the phone call all about? We heard a little bit about him, but what kind of a dog was it? This man has lost a... A light brown had a collar and license on. He lost it sometime last night. Now, your job is to go out and find that dog. That's right. When I'm making my tour, I'll especially go over it into that vicinity and start checking throughout that neighborhood for the dog. Now, once you receive this call from this owner, do you go right out on that assignment or do you wait until you get a couple of more? No. If I'm ready to go out, I go out on that and check that first and see if I can pick up the dog. The sooner, the better for us. I assume that you have a dog truck that you go around in. That's right. We do.

Is that like the kind we've always heard about with the screen mesh in the back of the car? No, we just have a regular paneled body truck with a divider behind the seat from the dogs. Now, we want to find out just exactly how you go about finding the dog and then once you find it, how you actually capture it. But suppose we go right along with you on this ride through the town and maybe we can record it as we see it. Fine. Well, where you're in the truck now, as you can hear, and Mr. Hill is driving over here to the location where Mr. Grayson, who called in a little while ago, said that his dog was last seen. Now, as we pull out, there's a two -way radio in this panel truck. Mr. Hill is going to have to make a call here to the police station. 2 -9 is 10 -8 from the barn. 2 -9, that's the number of your truck, is it? The number of my truck,

yes, sir. But why do you have to call the police station and tell them where you're going? Well, if there's any calls or any emergency that they want me right away, they can get me by air, they know I'm out on the road. Oh, I see. Now, you said you're 2 -8 from the 10 -8 from the pond. What do you mean by that? That I'm clear from the pond and out. Oh, I see. Alright, now we're on our way to the location and we'll pick it up when we get out there and tell just what Mr. Hill is going to do. By the way, as we're driving over here, I'd like to ask you just a couple of questions about some of your activities. What about some of the animals that you have to pick up? I imagine you have a lot of rather strange experiences. Do you have to have to go after big birds or stray birds of any kind? Yes, we have a few calls on stray birds. Odd animals, people don't recognize what kind of an animal they just say. It's a strange animal to them. It's probably a raccoon or a heron bird or

could be a raccoon. A heron, did you have a lot of herons up in this neighborhood? Just in the spring you might have them as they're going north. They may drop off or tired from flying and they'll settle down and rest. Well, now Mr. Hill, we know that we're going out on this call that Mr. Grayson phoned in. But do you have any other calls to make? Yes, I've got about half a dozen on. I have to pick up two cats, stray cats, and I have one up a tree which I'll have to go and get out of a tree a little later. What about this dog we have in the back of the panel truck here? That truck now I'm taking over to the animal hospital to have a rabie shot for this man so he can take it home. Okay, thank you very much. Now, he's leaving the truck right now. We've come to the location. He's going to make another phone call here. Two -night off at Bramer Animal. He just phoned into the police department that

he's reached the location where he wants to get rid of this dog that we have in the back of the truck. He's going to take that into the animal hospital here at Bramer Animal Hospital and have a rabie shot. Then later on the dog owner will pick him up. The next complaint that Mr. Hill is answering is at a sorority house. Right now, he is just bringing a cat into the truck. You can probably hear him putting the cat in the back of the truck. The cat was being held there by the sorority house. Mr. Hill is just back into the truck here. What happened in there? Well, they held his cat in a vestibule. They were afraid of it. When I picked him up, he started chewing on the gloves. I noticed you put gloves on there. Do you have special gloves to pick up cats? Yes, I do. We use what they call a welder's glove. Animal can't bite through those gloves. Now, you put the cat back here in the back of the truck. What if you have to go pick up some other animals? I have a cat box I can pick him up in.

But I may use that on this next call on this bird. So I just leave him loose in the truck. I noticed we haven't mentioned anything about nets. Don't you use any nets anymore? Well, we don't use nets too much. We have a small net for catching parakeets and smaller birds. But never for a dog. Not for a dog. No, sir. That's the thing of the past. Well, now our next call is for a bird. So let's wait for a minute until we reach that destination. Now, our next stop here is at a location where there's been a complaint about a bird. And we just pulled up in front of the building. And the bird is over there in an evergreen. What kind of a bird is that, Mr. Hill? That is a grilling bird. Now you've got a box here. You're going to put the bird in that box? I'm going to try to. Yes, ma 'am. It's right here. I don't know. I'll get it on a wing. Yeah, that's a grayling.

A grayling. A grayling. That's right. There goes the bird flying away now. That's very difficult to catch a bird like that, I guess, isn't it? That is. It's a wild bird. And they'll stay around lakes mostly. Well, that's a mighty big bird. He's on his way north, and he probably come in to rest a while. Well, anyway, it was... I imagine it would be a frightening experience for the people here, wouldn't it? Yes, it would. They're a little afraid of that bird, they didn't. It's gone, lady. It flew off. The bird is gone, he says, and telling the lady who was in the house, and believe me, she was frightened. And I can understand why. That was a strange -looking bird. Well, another assignment is completed, and we move on. Where's our next stop? It will be... I'll have to go back to the pond on this one and get my poles out to go up and get a tree... cat out of a tree. How about that Grayson dog first? Are we going to get that one? I'll go over on

800 block on four. First, and checking that vicinity with some of the neighbors, and see if they have seen the dog. And I'll search on my way back toward the pond. All right, well, maybe we'll find it. Well, we're driving along now looking for the animal, Bill Kettlehead, our engineer, and Mr. Hill and I have kept our eyes open, and so far we haven't been able to spot him. What vicinity are we in now, Mr. Hill? We're in the 800 block vicinity of Forest Avenue, and we'll tour the radius of four blocks each way to see if we can run across this little fella. Well, now once we spot him, if we do, how are you going to catch him? Well, I have my rope, first of all. I'll carry the rope with me and see if I can have the dog just come up to me. Usually they will, if they're lost, they'll... you call them... they'll come up to you. You call them by name, do you? Yes, sir. And if they

come up to you, you just have to pick them up. I have my gloves on for safety, not getting bit on the hands. I noticed that you did have a lariat back here in the truck. It's got a little loop in it. Do you have to use that very often? I enlarge your dogs, I do them most of the time, just for safety. There's access to choke rope, and you can guide their head. So you can't turn and snap at you. So you just slip the lariat in the noose around the dog's neck and it chokes them a little bit. That's right, if that's if they try to turn on you, it'll choke them. But if they're just going along, why they will not choke them. Well, we still haven't spotted the animal, but we're hoping that we do. Bill, I don't suppose we can keep this recorder running until we do find it. So why don't you turn it off and as soon as we come across the animal, if we do, we'll start the recorder again. Well, it looks like there's a little docks and over there, we've just turned the recorder on again because

we're pulling up to a corner here. That's him over there. You think that snaps? Yeah, that's the dog. Well, he's pulling up now to the corner and he's going to pull the truck over. And Mr. Hill will get out and see if he can get the dog. And now I'll stay here in the truck, I think, and tell what's going on. Now he's walking over to the animal. He's taking his rope, but it looks like he's not going to have to use it. The dog is rather frightened, obviously, and he's just picking him up now. And there he's bringing him over to the truck. You just put him in the back and you could probably hear the door slam. He's a mighty frightened animal. That's the little fella. Well, that's wonderful. I don't hear any barking, he looks rather frightened. Well, he is. Most dogs are when you put him in the back like that in their strange neighborhood and all they're frightened. Well, I'm no Mr. Grayson. We'll be glad to hear that you found his dog. Now, what are you going to do? Take him right into the dog pound? I'll take him back to the dog pound and call the owner as soon as possible. All right, well, let's do that. And when we get back there, why we can talk a little more about what happens to the dog.

Well, now that we're back at the dog pound and Schnaps has been found and has been checked for his rabies shot and all the tags and all of the information has gotten on the dog that is possible. Mr. Hill has prepared now to call back the owner. Now, you heard at the beginning of the program how the owner called in here to the dog pound and to tell about the lost dog. Of course, the final step is to call the owner and let the owner know that the dog has been found. So he's about ready to do that now and let's listen. Hello, Mr. Grayson. This is Mr. Hill, the dog warden. Fine, I think we've got your dog if you'd like to come down and identify it. And we're over on Clark and Maple if you know where that is at the

city yards. And I'll see you when you get over here to whether it's your dog or not. Okay. Bye. Now that we've caught the dog and brought the Schnaps back to the dog pound, we've come out in here to where the dogs are located. And we're going to talk to Mr. Hill as best we can over the barking of the dogs. It so happens that we've come in at the time when the dogs are being fed right around lunchtime. Mr. Hill, we're down here at one end of the dog pound and we want to look down and talk about some of the dogs here. First of all, what kind of a dog is this over here in the first cage? That's a golden retriever. How did he happen to get in here? He was brought in here for biting and he's in here for 14 day checkup or maybe observation. What about the next dog? That's a brown and white beautiful dog. That was a stray dog and the owner is coming in sometime

today and that's a water spaniel. And he'll be in today to pick this dog up. He's missed a dog for three days. He left home. Where'd you find that dog? Out in Northwest Evans. What about this next dog, a brown and a black one? This one is in for biting. It was over on a school ground playing with children. And it's just a mongrel dog and picked up and brought in for observation. Might as well look over here to the left of us as we're walking down the line here. You have two dogs here. What brought them in? The little fox terrier is just a stray dog and the owner is coming in. He called this morning and he's coming in to pick his dog up. And this beagle was picked up in Southwest Evanston and we're holding for the owner to come in and pick it up. Here's a beautiful brown spaniel. A cocker spaniel. A beautiful dog. How did you get him? Well, he's in here for biting and children playing in the house

with a bone and he bit the hand instead of the bone. Is that right? Yes, sir. Maybe it was an accident. That's all it was, it was an accident. What about the rest of the dogs next? The little one here was just playing with their children at home and nipped one of them and just playing. And the next one is another cocker spaniel. A black one. That we took us about four days to find this dog. It bit a two and a half year old child up north Evanston. And we had the description and we had to check house to house up there and finally run across the dog. She identified the dog and it's in here now for observation. Across the aisle from that black cocker spaniel is one of the most beautiful ivory setters that I've ever seen. That's a good looking dog, Mr. Hill. That is. That's a real thoroughbred there. And the owner is from Northwest Evanston called this morning and is coming in to get his dog. And finally this sad looking thing here at the end. He really has sad eyes. He's a part German shepherd

dog and is getting to be a noted fighter. He was home for about three days and right back here again for biting. All of these dogs look kind of sad. There are more or less when they're confined in a place like this. But when strangers come in or they're on anyone from their own family, why you see them brighten up and be full of pep. Now I want to describe just briefly Mr. Hill what we have here. We've walked down the aisle between two rows of cages. There are approximately nine or ten of them. And then over here on another aisle is the same thing. Now a little while ago we came out here and just looking over the dog pound and we noticed that you could pull up an open door at the back of the cage and let them outside. Now that's a mighty handy thing to have. It is where you have any biting dog or you don't have to handle them. You once put them in there, they stay in that same cage for the 14 -day period they're

here. And the doors that open from inside form they can go in and out anytime they want to. And what do they do outside? I mean you still have them caged in out there. That's right they are caged in outside. It's just that they can get outside in the fresh air. I bet you have to like animals don't you? Yes I do. Yes. Now there's one thing that we didn't mention and that's the cat. There's a lone black cat down here and it was the most amazing thing. We were standing here just a few moments ago and all of a sudden the door opened and the cat jumped out. How did that happen? Well I didn't have the lock on the door and the other little turn lock that I have on there. He can reach out with his paw and trip it. You can hear the cat probably and he's reaching out with his little black paw right now. I can see where it'd be easy for him to open and just reaching out through that open. I have that happen often. I have three of the cages that don't have that safety lock on which he'll get out on us. Well now I've been interrupting you from your feeding operations. Here I know that it's lunchtime for the dogs and just as we came in while you were

opening up some cans. Why don't you go right ahead with your feeding operation and I'll try and tell a listing audience some of the things that you're doing. He has a large stack of dog food here in cans which he opens up over here on an automatic can opener and how many cans of dog food do you use each day Mr. Hill? It depends on the number of dogs I have in here. At times I've used 48 to maybe 50 cans of dog food a day and at other times probably 25 to 30. And then less if it depends on the amount of dogs we have. How often do you feed the dogs each day? Once a day they're fed and they're fed around noon time. Why do you feed them only once? Being confined like this they're not active enough and we feel that overfeeding them isn't good either here when they're laying in the ponds as long a time as they do. I see. They stay in here for sometimes 14 days. Do they lose or do they gain weight? Well some dogs will

lose weight and others will just stay their normal weight. But anytime over that they will lose weight for some reason or other being confined they say mostly. Well you go right ahead with that feeding and as you walk down the line here we'll stop for just a moment and come back to you and talk to you about how you check for rabies and some of the other information that you have to get. I notice that snaps the dog that we picked up a little while ago is now in his cage and is rather docile at the moment. Rather unhappy too but as soon as his owner comes over why as Mr. Hill told you a little while ago they're rather sad until the owners show up and then they show a good deal of life. Mr. Hill has now concluded his feeding operation and he's come into the office here where we've set up our tape recorder again and we want to talk to him a little bit more about some of the operation here especially about rabies control because that's one of the most important things connected with this organization. Mr. Hill I heard a little while ago that you had a phone call suppose you take

that message first. Why do you are busy in the other room Mrs. Brothers call from 171773 Asbury and there's a cat up on a tree in her backyard. It isn't her cat but it's raining and the cat's wet and she wants to know what to do about it. I told her you'd call her back. Well I'll call her in a few minutes as soon as I'm through here and go up and take my polls with me and see what I can do for. That's one operation we didn't talk about during our trip around the dog pound and out on the truck Mr. Hill but what about this now we've always heard about cats being chased up the tree and you hear just gotten a complaint about it. What are you going to do? Well I have a set of polls out here that I can attach together with reach up 60 feet into a tree so you don't have to climb up the tree yourself and it has a news on the end of it. We get the news around the cats head and lift them up off the branch

and take the poll down in sections as he's coming down with the poll and set them on the ground and let them go again. Well you fellas have all the modern devices you've got everything figured out. Yes sir that's great help it saves a leg or an arm probably. Well that's a very interesting story about the cat but since we're talking about dogs and you're known as the dog warden. Well I want to talk to you a little bit briefly now about some of the things you do when you bring the dogs in here to the dog pound. Now first of all what about rabies and rabies control? Well any dog that has bit a person or scratched the law now reads the heft to be brought into a veterinarians or to the city dog pond for observation of 14 days. In which we have a veterinarian stops each day to check each animal that's in here for biting. What about dog tags in the city of Evanston? All dogs have to have tags by May 1st of

the current year and they're not released from the pond until they have a rabie tag and a new license. Now in our trip we went out specifically to look for a dog that an owner called up and said was missing. But what about just stray dogs? Do you go around town looking for them? Yes we do when we have the time if there's not too much other things that I have to do then I'm out rolling and trying to pick up stray dogs. What about dogs that really belong to owners and the owners have lost them? How much of a charge do you make to them? If they have the current license and the rabie tag it's a charge of $3 for impounding the animal. I imagine that you have had good many experiences in caching dogs. What about dogs that go out on the ice in the winter time out on the canal? Have you ever had to go out after them? Yes I had quite a few during the winter months they get out on the canal and towards the center is usually

thin and they fall in. And I have this pole which now I can stand on the side of the canal and reach out and get the news around their head and pull them up on the ice. Did you ever have to go into Lake Michigan for a dog? We did once this winter we had one that had fell in over the icebergs there at the shoreline. How did you get him? Well I wasn't able to reach him and I had the fire department come down and they put a ladder out over the ice and we brought him in that way. Was he alright? Yes he was just numb with cold we took him over to the veterinarians and now they saw him out with lukewarm water right away. What about animals other than dogs and cats? Do you ever have to go out after all birds for example? Yes we have to go out and get birds out of chimneys, squirrels out of chimneys and now I have a call

here waiting for me to go down and forest and green leaf. They have a strange bird in their tree in the front yard and the man just wanted to let us know because he's never seen a bird like that here. I heard you were talking a little while ago about a possum. Yes I have a possum in a cage here under observation a student at Northwestern picked him up by the tail and he turned around and bit him on the fingers. How about squirrels you have to catch squirrels too? Yes we have a number of squirrel bites and we have traps now that we can set out in the home or near the home and see if we can catch the right squirrel if they can identify the same squirrel. Now where do all these animals come from? These stray dogs and squirrels and the possums and all of those. Where do they come from do you know? Well we get most of the

possum or the small fox and raccoons they will come in from the forest preserves into the town and probably it's because they can't find enough to eat they come in the town. How long have you been in this job Mr. Hill? Seven years and you like it pretty well don't you? Very much. Mr. Hill has gone inside with the dogs into the dog pound and Mr. Grayson whose dog was found just a few moments ago as you heard has walked into the office here and we want to spend just a moment interviewing him. Mr. Grayson I am sure that you're quite happy that Schnaps has been located. You can say that again. How did you happen to lose him? Well my wife and I were out walking and we were walking across Sheridan Road and the dog ran ahead of us into the traffic and across the road and by the time we got across we couldn't find the dog anyplace. Now what prompted you to call the dog pound? Did you know about the service here in Evanston? Well we know that it's very good and it's been successful for friends of ours in the past that have lost their dogs and

I didn't know frankly or frankly who to turn to when we did lose him. My wife was kind of in a quandary about who to call and we wanted the dog back you know. It is your wife's dog. It sure is. Well I bet she'll be mighty happy to find him. Well you know that those dogs are very precious to people and especially to us. Well now one final bit of caution I'm sure that Mr. Hill will add and since he's not here I'll add it for him. There's no charge as you know in Evanston for the first finding but if you lose him again they find you for three dollars so you better watch him. Well you can bet that I'll never have to pay that fine that dog's going to be on a leash from now on. Okay thank you very much Mr. Grayson and so ends our story of the dog pound in Evanston and the dog has been returned to its rightful owner. Now those people who have nothing but bad to say about the dog catcher are the animal warden. I hope have had their ideas changed by our conversation. You've heard the story of the dog warden here in Evanston Illinois just north of Chicago.

He has many duties to perform. He catches raccoons and birds and foxes and deer, possum and other animals who have no home to return to. The animal warden's responsibilities are many fold but foremost among them is his desire to find and return pets to their rightful owners as well as to protect the public from danger. Now that we've talked with the dog warden it's only fitting that every dog has his day. Thank you very much.