Kyle Berger: Animal control supervisor

You previously worked at Whatcom Humane Society in animal care. How did you become interested in animal control work?

From my time working at the shelter in animal care. We have a pretty close relationship. But a lot of places, animal control is run out of the sheriff’s office or police department — it’s separate from the actual shelter, and that’s not the case here. So having a lot of interaction with the animal control officers, when I was working in animal care, and seeing animals that they would bring in. I think I went on a ride-along with one of the officers, and that was what got me thinking, ‘This is something that I would like to try out, to do.’

What is the wildest call you’ve been on?

Well, I once got a call at something around 5 in the morning. Someone up in Birch Bay/Blaine area pulled off to the side of the road [and called in] an emu out in the road … They had pulled over with their hazards on, and [the emu] was just kind of hanging out around their car. [It] took me a while to get up there, of course, but it was still there by the time I got there, and I was able to get it into the vehicle. Getting it contained wasn’t necessarily the hard part; it was the loading it into the truck that was not so easy. But we got there.

What is the most difficult part of your job?

Either the people who don’t want to be cooperative, or just seeing animals in bad situations. There’s only so much that we can do in terms of taking action. It’s not illegal to be a bad animal owner, unfortunately. There are some situations that we get calls for and go check on, and you wish that you could do more.

How do you maintain positivity when you’re faced with cruelty day in and day out?

A big part of it for me is focusing on the positive in the community. For those cruelty calls, 90 percent of our calls come from members of the public reporting things. So even the fact that somebody saw this and said, ‘This isn’t right, something’s wrong here and I’m going to try and do something about it.’ … I see a lot of people who step up and go out of their way to help, whether it’s a neighbor or an animal in need. People are offering their own resources or space if somebody is having a hard time taking care of their pet. I think that’s a big thing that helps.

What makes a workday fulfilling for you?

Getting to go home and — this certainly isn’t every day but — feeling like I did something that helped my community, and helped a population that can’t help themselves or speak for themselves in helping animals.

What is a common misconception that pet owners have that leads to Animal Control involvement?

A big one would be around leash laws. In Whatcom County, the leash law is based on the zoning. So in areas that are zoned agricultural, R5 or R10, there’s actually an exemption to the leash law. So it creates this gray area where as a dog owner, your responsibility is to make sure your dog stays on your property and doesn’t get into trouble, but if it does leave your property, that’s technically not a violation, not something that you can be ticketed for. [A] dog can still be impounded by being picked up by Animal Control or a member of the public and brought to WHS. And the dog — and owner — can still get in trouble if it does other things: chasing animals, menacing people, damaging property, etc.

In the cities, the actual language defines as ‘under control,’ which I know a lot of people get into the weeds about that. … I just find, generally speaking, it’s much safer to have your dog on a leash.