Washington County Animal Services wins national award

Washington County Animal Services recently won the 2023 Animal Control Agency of the Year award from the National Animal Care & Control Association. Randy Covey manages the Hillsboro organization and the Bonnie Hays Animal Shelter. He also won a Lifetime Contribution Award from the Oregon Animal Control Council earlier this year. We hear more from Covey about the county’s work and how the animal control sector has changed over the years.

Note: This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Washington County Animal Services recently won the 2023 Animal Control Agency of the Year Award from the National Animal Care and Control Association. In announcing the award, the leader of the national organization said that the Washington County agency has set a standard of excellence that inspires us all, reminding us that compassion knows no boundaries. Randy Covey is the manager of the agency and he joins us now. Thanks very much for coming in.

Randy Covey: Hi, Dave. Pleasure to be here.

Miller: Can you give us a sense for the range of services that your agency provides?

Covey: Yes, of course. Thanks for asking. Washington County Animal Services in the Bonnie Hays Animal Shelter is primarily a stray animal intake facility, but we provide services beyond just animal care. We have animal services officers that respond to complaints or concerns from the public. We investigate animal abuse and neglect. We address concerns about stray dogs running loose because they may get in traffic or they might put themselves at risk or put people at risk, dangerous dogs out in the community. Our enforcement program and our regulation is primarily based around dogs, but when it comes to animal abuse and neglect, it’s any animal that might be at risk that our staff respond to.

Miller: Horses and cats, I mean, there was a horse case recently that was in the news?

Covey: Yes. Livestock, even exotic animals, anything from a chinchilla to a tiger. and anything in between. If it’s animal abuse or neglect, we’re interested in looking into that.

Miller: Tiger, was that made up or that’s based on an actual example?

Covey: We have had concerns about exotic animals like tigers in Washington County. Not recently, I’m happy to say,  but it certainly falls within our purview. We also have a medical team on staff that provides care for the stray animals that come to the shelter. We have an admin team that takes care of dog licensing, rabies vaccination certificates and documenting that. There’s a wide range of services that we provide.

Miller: What drew you to this line of work?

Covey: Well, my story goes back about 37 years and I hate to say that. It makes me feel like I need a cane now to walk around.

Miller: You did not use a cane to walk in here. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Covey: Yeah, absolutely not. But yeah, I’ve been around a while and I first got into animal services and animal welfare really as a business opportunity. I had a small business, I owned a gas station, believe it or not in Kodiak, Alaska. I had an empty building in the back and I was comfortable with animals. I was on the State Fair and Rodeo Board and owned some horses and the Kodiak Island Borough put out an RFP, a request for proposals, and they wanted to start an animal control program. So I looked at that and I looked at my empty building and I thought, well, this sounds like a good business opportunity.

Miller: Just attach it to the gas station. [Laughter]

Covey: Yeah, it was in the back and it was basic patrol. But it quickly became a career choice for me.

Miller: And was there a moment that made you realize yes, I actually want to keep doing this when you were up in Kodiak?

Covey: Yeah. So picture this, I’m in my early twenties. I want to say 22-23 years old and I get this call, I’ve got this contract now, I’m new in this line of work and I get this call about a dog that’s out on a frozen lake. And it’s just been howling for a long time and people are concerned. They call me and I go out and it turns out that this dog had gotten its tail wet apparently in an ice fishing hole and it was frozen, its tail was frozen to the lake and it was just howling. And so I was able to go out there. And for me, it was an easy matter to simply shave the bushy tail hair off of the ice and free the dog.

It seemed pretty simple, but when I saw the dog was so relieved and it was just body language and a waggly body, and then when I was able to return it to its owner and the owner’s joy of getting their dog back, it just made me realize that this really is more than just about pets. It’s about people, as well, and providing that service. And that was kind of an eye opener for me. And I’ve had many, many opportunities since then to not only rescue animals myself but to support others who are doing that kind of work. And it’s been a really rewarding career.

Miller: It sounds like such an Alaskan picture you just painted too of a howling dog on a frozen lake. How much has this field of work changed in those nearly four decades?

Covey: Yeah, it has changed a lot. The simplest answer I can give you is that we’ve gone from a society of items of possession to now, at least in the Portland metro region, animals are seen as valuable members of the family. People are committed when they get an animal to keep it for that animal’s life. And we’ve really gone from having shelters just sort of be this place where people do their animals because they’re no longer convenient to places like Washington County Animal Services where we take care of the stray, the sick and the injured animals that are found in the community. We have one of the highest return-to-owner rates in the country. Nationwide, the return to owner rate for dogs is about between 17% and 22% of animals that come into a shelter, but for Washington County Animal Services, our return-to-owner rate is between 72% and 75%.

Miller: Is that because you’re doing a better job of finding the owners or that the owners are more likely here to say “yeah, I want my animal.”

Covey: It’s a combination of both. It really is a team effort and I’m glad you phrase it that way because we couldn’t do the great job that we do without the support and the participation of the public. We do a lot to return pets to their owners. We go on social media looking for lost pet posts. We scan for microchips. Our staff does an excellent job of even recognizing animals if they’ve been there before and calling the owners and saying, hey, we’ve got your pet, we’d like to get it home to you. But people in the Portland region are also much better about licensing their dogs, about looking for their pets when they’re lost and about being committed to getting them home when they wander.

Miller: Popular culture portrayals of people who work in your profession, which I think has historically been called dog catchers, sometimes they’re villains in movies or sort of buffoons just running after a dog that’s running down the street. Where do you think those images came from?

Covey: Yeah. So historically, those images come from the fact that animal control in the past was really just to take care of a problem that nobody wanted to deal with. And I’m so glad to say that and I want to state on the record here and now that there are no dog catchers left in the United States of America. We are animal services officers, animal welfare officers.

Miller: Well, what’s the distinction?

Covey: So the distinction is, first of all, the level of respect that society has grown to understand and provide for animal services officers and the types of care and service that we provide in the community. And so we’ve gone from simply taking animals that nobody wanted and euthanizing them en masse to now holding people accountable when they treat animals poorly through abuse and neglect investigations and by providing services in a respectful, professional way so that people understand that we care about them, we care about their pets.

There’s also been a lot of research done that shows the relationship between humans and animals. There is a lot of training that our officers go through that has really increased their knowledge and expertise in animal welfare and in communicating with people about how to properly care for their pets.

Miller: We got an email from a listener who works at a smaller, private shelter in the metro area and they wrote this:

“The services at the Bonnie Hays Shelter have shrunk so much during and after the pandemic, they don’t offer adoptions anymore. They don’t accept any animals except injured stray cats and stray dogs, which leaves many people who can’t keep their animals to abandon them. We’re hearing of more loose dogs being abandoned in the county. Not having an open door municipal shelter in such a large county is a nightmare for people who find animals or need to give up an animal.”

Do you see a way for the county to expand its services to provide what it used to do or is this the new normal?

Covey: So there is a common misconception that the pandemic is directly related to our reduction in services. The truth is that we went through an audit with the county auditor and through that audit, it was determined that our shelter is not large enough to accept the numbers of animals that had been accepted in the past. We can’t hold them. The services that we provide are geared towards what’s within our resources to provide. I’ll be the first to admit that we can’t provide all the services that people need. We focus on the things that we can do and that we can do well. Our goal is to be able to expand those services.

We recently had a facility needs assessment done. And when I say recently, I mean, it just concluded within the past month and what that facility needs assessment showed us is that in order to meet the growing demands of Washington County, we need a shelter that’s about twice the size of the one we currently have and has a better facility. So, yeah, I’ll admit there are things that we can’t do that we would love to do. It doesn’t hurt anybody more than us to say that, but we’re also committed to providing the best service we can within the resources that we have and we are taking proactive steps to improve our ability to do that going forward.

Miller: Is a doubled shelter in the realm of possibility in terms of the budget, you imagine going forward?

Covey: It’s a possibility when we consider that we have widespread public support, we have a lot of people who recognize the needs in Washington County. And I would just point to an organization like the Oregon Humane Society that has recently expanded their facility. They now have a community veterinary hospital. And they successfully raised, I think it was about $55 million.

Miller: As a nonprofit as opposed to a government entity?

Covey: As a nonprofit, right.

Miller: But for you to see that as a sign of popular support?

Covey: I do. I see that as a commitment of the people in the Portland Metro region to support animal welfare issues and needs. And even as a public government agency, I’m quite confident that the public would support a new shelter. We just have to go through the proper steps. We have to make sure that we go through the proper approval processes to be able to raise that money, but we will be in the future. I’m quite optimistic about asking for donations to support a new animal shelter. And I’m pretty optimistic that it’ll happen.

Miller: I can see the excitement in your eyes back when you were remembering that moment on that frozen lake in Kodiak. Do you still get to work directly with animals 37 years later?

Covey: Not as often as I’d like, but yes, the short answer is, yes, I do get to work with animals. In my role managing Washington County Animal Services in the Bonnie Hays Animal Shelter, I can walk through and I do often walk through daily to see the animals that we have in the shelter. My role now is changed because now I’m providing support for those who are doing the jobs that I used to be primarily responsible for. I spent a lot of time out in the field investigating. I spend a lot of time providing care for animals, rescuing animals, but our team is professional. They treat all people with respect and they’ve provided excellent service to the citizens of Washington County and I’m just privileged to be able to work with those professionals and provide the best service possible.

Miller: Just briefly, when you were describing the work that you used to do more often in the field of investigating or rescuing animals, as somebody who I imagine you got into this partly because you love animals, was that emotionally taxing to see evidence of humans treating animals terribly?

Covey: That’s a really good question and I’ve pondered that myself and I’ve wondered why I don’t feel worse, but I don’t. What I feel great about is the fact that I am in a position where I can do something about it.

Miller: This is happening no matter what…

Covey: I’m not responsible for it myself, the officers and the shelter technicians and the team that I work with, we’re not responsible for those animals being in those conditions, but we do have an opportunity better than anybody else in the community to do something about it, to rescue those animals, provide great care and also to hold the people accountable who are responsible for that. And so, no, I think it’s an honor and a privilege to be able to provide those services. And I work with a great team to be able to do that.

Miller: Randy Covey, congratulations and thanks very much.

Covey: Thank you.

Miller: Randy Covey is the manager of Washington County Animal Services and the Bonnie Hays Animal Shelter.

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