I was recently asked to bid on a contract for a local minicipality for domestic animal control. basically someone gets a stray dog or cat in their yard, they call the city, city calls me, i try to find the perp and drop him off at the animal shelter, i send bill to city.

Anyone involved with this? Just not sure it is worth the headache just yet.

michael

Nope, Georgia has fully staffed animal controls in all but one of the counties I serve and that is covered by another.

I have a very good friend that has a couple of those contracts and has saved the cities involved some money, while also making a profit. It kind of boils down to you knowing what you are doing. Ask some questions if you are unsure. I would not be afraid to take a contract with the city I live in, but the one a mile away, no way!

A lot of the calls you are going to get will be late afternoon and night. I was the police officer in a small town for 26 years. Did the dog/cat thing as part of the job. So I know when most of the calls come in. People come home from work and let the dog out, off he goes. Also, more people home to see and complain about things. Something to thing about. Usually get calls on the weekends and hollidays also.

Mike,

Seems like a good line if you get the pricing where you want it and details of your obligations. A couple of years back I had a training
class with a number of city animal control people and depending on the city I was blown away by what they made in salary (high that is).
Now again depending on the city, but if the city where you are wants to not employ someone full time, but needs the work done you may
reap that reward as Paul was saying, all in the details of course, but I wouldn't hesitate to pursue that if it suits you and your workload.

Justin

Did a municipal contract for many years. It worked because it was close by, and an up front retainer was written in. The police loved me because they didn't have to deal with smelly animals and fleas. I also got milage and a clause for extra ordinary situations. As the years passed, I got a better feel for the volume and tweaked the contract accordingly. The police commission never balked at my annual increases in the rate structure.

Did dogs, cats, and wildlife. There were some gruesome events that police deal with on a daily basis, that maybe would be a real downer for some. There were many sad events involving pets and accidents. I drove more than one car struck dog to the vet ER. Also crawled through a sewer pipe for a mewling kitten, captured an escaped 4 ft. iguana in a trash can, and snakes, lots of snakes domestic and foreign. Worked with police on dangerous dog calls - mostly pits.

I am done with it all now. It was a good thing except when, as Jim noted, the calls come at mostly inconvenient times, late night, weekends, calls on the 4th of July when there are fireworks, you get the idea.

Michael,
I did that kinda thing in High School(20 yrs ago), My contract with them was a call out charge, then it was a charge based on the critter. There was a trapping charge if I had to put down traps, but the removal was figured into the critter charge. I found my work with the city/county pretty lucrative. Raccoons in the firehouse, tree rats in the courthouse attic, etc. That was in TX, and out in the country. I'm not sure were,or who, you are dealing with but you can make some good money at it, I did. I feel the secret is in the call out and the critter charge. You don't want to get the same pay for a stinker that you do for a tabby. Good Luck, WYK