Grapevine employee quits when city starts enforcing pet policy
Posted on 11/30/2002 3:25:51 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Grapevine employee quits when city starts enforcing pet policy
11/30/2002
GRAPEVINE - Starsky and Hutch. Scully and Mulder. Batman and Robin.
Like them, Brian Hall and Brandy are partners. The Grapevine animal control officer and his basset-beagle mix spent more than two years going on calls together and visiting schoolchildren.
So when the animal shelter began enforcing a no-pets policy, Mr. Hall resigned his post after six years with the department rather than leave Brandy at home.
"They were asking me to give up my dog, who is my partner," he said. "I tried it for about a week, then I resigned. If you don't want my dog's services, you don't want mine."
The Keller resident started taking Brandy to work with him when he adopted her 2 ½ years ago. The dog suffers from separation anxiety when away from people, which is why its former owners who traveled a great deal gave her up, Mr. Hall said. She becomes destructive if left at home alone for very long.
In October, the city began enforcing restrictions on bringing pets to work.
"This policy, it totally shocked me," Mr. Hall said. "She never did anything at all, because I was very responsible with her and she got along with everything. If she wasn't in her kennel, she was in the truck with me. During the summertime, I'd leave the air conditioning on. I would only be out of the truck for minutes at a time."
Sgt. Bob Murphy, the public information officer for Grapevine's Police Department, which oversees animal services, said the policy is not new. It's been on the books since January 2001 but was not strictly enforced. Until 2001, the shelter didn't have a written policy on the issue.
"It's one of those areas where you wouldn't think you would need to say it," Sgt. Murphy said. "It's just common sense that one wouldn't expect to be able to bring animals to work."
Sgt. Murphy said the captain over the animal shelter began enforcing the rule when he became aware that animals were being brought to the shelter.
'Good PR'
But Mr. Hall believed that the type of work was acceptable for pets. Brandy spent most of her time in the truck. He never let her out during calls, so she posed no safety hazard, he said.
"She's sitting in the passenger side window, people would look over and smile and wave," he said. "To me, that was good PR for the city."
And children at schools where he spoke as part of educational programs enjoyed seeing Brandy.
"She did great with the kids," he said. "They just loved her."
Many cities don't appear to have a formal policy on bringing pets to work at animal shelters. But for several neighboring cities, the ban is understood, officials said.
Pam Burney, environmental services director for North Richland Hills, said her shelter's officers don't bring their pets to work because of possible risks to their animals.
"The animals we get are random source animals," she said. "We have no idea where they come from, what diseases they may be carrying, and I personally wouldn't want to subject my dog to that. We just don't do it."
Ms. Burney said that the shelter's officers do have therapy dogs that visit nursing homes and hospitals but that those dogs are not taken into the shelter offices.
Although some of the North Richland Hills shelter's officers bring in their pets for demonstrations or special events such as school programs, they don't bring them in every day.
"I think it may be very stressful for a dog," Ms. Burney said. "We just don't do it. I think it's great when you take them to offices. I have a friend who works at a dot-com, and they take their pets to work.
"But this is such a high-stress job. I just don't think it would be fair to the dog."
Similarly, Arlington's Animal Services Department has two cats and a dog that serve as the shelter mascots. They are used for demonstrations and outreach, but animal control officers don't bring their dogs to work with them, although the city doesn't have a written policy prohibiting it.
"We don't have any policies, but we don't have officers bring their dogs here unless it's a specific situation like they need to take it to the vet or something," said Mike Bass, animal services manager.
Finding a new job
Mr. Hall said he is looking for work in the same field at a place where he would be able to take Brandy to work with him.
"I have a passion for animals," he said. "It's a very rewarding job. I'm missing it a lot right now. It was just a neat thing to be able to help people."
Brandy, too, seems to be missing the job, he said.
"She's not as excited as she used to be. She's put on weight," he said. "We'll get up in the morning. She's still excited, but she's expecting me to put on that uniform to go to work. She's confused and disappointed we're not doing anything. She's probably just bored, and so am I."
This story also appears in the Northeast Tarrant Morning News.
E-mail jjordan@dallasnews.com
I appreciate that this guy, instead of screaming about how the rules shouldn't apply to him, and getting a lawyer, had the dignity and decency to simply resign.
He showed class that is very rare and lacking in our world of today.
That said, I have to comment that he illustrates this very unfortunate tendency to "anthropomorphize" his pet, a trait that is in ABUNDANCE in today's society.
Too many people have lost the knack--if they ever had it--of relating to people, and so they choose to relate to pets instead. The result has been an explosion in the "pet market" that parallels the explosion in divorce and general social disaffection.
After all, dogs and cats have very simple demands that are easily met. You invest a little emotionally in them, and they return a lot. They don't divorce you and take the puppies.
So like this guy, they tend to view them as "their children" and to fantasize that they are like human children.
Yes, dogs can have "separation anxiety" just like kids. But you can put them in a dog crate, and leave, and after a couple of days of howling, they get used to it. They don't have to be fussed over. They don't need psychiatrists (or animal psychics for that matter).
This is just sad, and this is a sad little man leading a sad little life.
I wish he would get some help.
Fact: The famous software ogre, Bill Gates, allows his employees to bring their pets to work, while most Microsoft jobs have NOTHING to do with animals.
Fact: The Grapevine Animal Control department does not allow its employees to bring their pets to work, while most animal control jobs have EVERYTHING to do with animals.
That said, I have to comment that most government agencies have a very unfortunate tendency to enforce "zero-tolerance" policies, whether they make any sense or not.
Talk about "going to the dogs."
What about the little convenience of food, water, and bathroom needs? For one full of advice you seem to have little understanding of the subject.
Anything that someone of your God-like intellect doesn't understand must be wrong.
They wonder why the world hates them, and their desire to make nonsensical rules that have nothing to do with productivity, and everything to do with control.
I have no doubt that this man was a dedicated employee, and having his little dog with him probably made his days more bearable.
As it is, my present dog has the run of the house, but until she figured out that we leave in the morning and come back in the afternoon, she stayed in her crate so she wouldn't wreak the sort of havoc this guy is describing.
No, it doesn't kill her. She's a DOG for crying out loud.
Sounds a lot like you.....
L
Hey, I have an idea: Why not let everyone bring their HOBBIES to work every day as well? After all, hobbies are IMPORTANT, and people ought to have resort to their hobbies as a "break" from the stress that some people anachronistically call "work."
Any employer who doesn't want to allow this kind of thing is just into "control." Pay no attention to anyone who tries to tell you that work is for...well, work. They're just living in the past.
;)
More than that, his job is all about protecting discarded pets. It makes total sense that he would take good care of his own and might even take it on the job, where he picks up discarded pets, and by doing so would set a good example for people who think of animals as disposable trinkets.
The same people like Illbay who think this is odd also get enraged when they read a story like the one earlier this week (No Criminal Charges For Animal Worker Who Fed Puppies To Python) where the animal protective person fed a puppy that was destined for the gas chamber to a discarded python.
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