Summer is upon us and I m sure everyone is struggling to stay afloat while the seemingly endless flood of animals and calls for assistance threaten

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3 Summer is upon us and I m sure everyone is struggling to stay afloat while the seemingly endless flood of animals and calls for assistance threaten to overwhelm on a daily basis. There s two pieces of good news I can share with this in mind: 1) Cooler weather will inevitably come to help slow things down a bit; and 2) TACA is here to help! We all know how difficult it can be to deal with the daily issues ACOs face, so if there s ever anything you need, please do not hesitate to reach our to any of us for assistance. We may have experience with what you re dealing with or we may not know the answer to your question and will have to find an answer for you, but we will be happy to help in any way we can. This summer is also a big turning point for TACA. Your TACA Board has voted to hire Jay Sabatucci as our Executive Director effective July 1. Jay will be your one-stop for all things TACA. If you have a question about payment, membership, classes, CE hours, or anything else, he will be the one to contact. We hope this will simplify the process for all Members and we know he will do a great job of improving the level of service we are able to provide to our Membership. Even though he hasn t retired from his real job yet, he has already started working for TACA and is making great strides. There will be a lot of things to straighten out after he officially starts and we ask for a little patience, but we know long-term we are headed in the right direction. We are looking to grow our Membership and increase the services provided so that there are even more reasons to be a part of this organization! November will be here before you know it so make sure you check the website for more information about our annual conference. We ll be in San Marcos again and we re excited about the classes we ll be able to offer. There is simply no other conference in the state that is geared specifically towards ACOs and shelter employees and there is no better value around. Come check us out and you ll see why our attendees love joining us each year!

4 (877) The Disinfection Revolution

5 Fort Worth Animal Care & Control receives donation for life-saving equipment Members of the Stray Animal Unit don their new ballistic vests. In recognition of the valuable and often dangerous work animal control officers carry out, Fort Worth Animal Care & Control received a donation from the law firm Barlow Garsek & Simon LLP to buy seven ballistic vests. The donation was designated for use by the Stray Animal Unit Officers and totaled $4, Animal control officers are routinely threatened with physical harm while dealing with animal-related issues. In January 2011, a Clark County, Ohio, sheriff s deputy was shot and killed while responding to a neighborhood dispute that started over dog defecation. In November 2012, Galt, California, Animal Control Officer Roy Marcum was shot and killed after going to a house to remove animals the day after an eviction notice was posted. We are honored to contribute to the purchase of life-saving protective vests in recognition of the risks routinely taken by these officers and the great contribution they make to public safety, said Chris Collins of Barlow Garsek & Simon. Nearly 30 states and multiple cities across the nation use these life-saving vests for animal control agencies. Fort Worth joins Dallas, Abilene and Universal City as Texas cities that issue ballistic vests to Animal Control Officers.

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7 A Letter From Board Member Paul O Neill What is value? I ask this in the hope that we will think about our value as professionals and how valuable we are to our respective cities. I also wonder how that value is perceived from our city leaders or if they even value what we do at all? As a noun the definition that I like is the regard that something is held to deserve, and as a verb I find to consider someone or something to be important or beneficial is very appropriate. Now I am not using financial definitions here but I will point out a financial aspect of value that I want to remind us all of, and that is growth. I want to encourage you to estimate your value, and challenge you to grow and increase it! The board of TACA would like to remind you of the resources that this professional association offers, and if you have something of value that would benefit your fellow professionals then please let us know so we can share it. Check out our website at to see the current list of DSHS approved training opportunities that are being offered at locations across the state. The TCCI classes provide an incredible amount of proven, useful information at a very municipal budget friendly price. Field, shelter and even administrative staff would all benefit from these trainings. DSHS approved online training is also available at this site, and is a great way to add value to your teams training program. Also, many of our professions leaders across the state have developed in house training programs, whose training hours are DSHS approved, and I m sure they would be happy to share how they did this. We have done this in Denton with great results and I will gladly share our blueprint. Finally, I would encourage you to use the members of the board as well. Our current board has such a diverse background of real world experience and education and we would be more than willing to help you find a solution to a problem or inspire you to take a bigger role in our association and our profession. While I have only touched on professional growth, our personal growth is equally important and I would urge my fellow officers to not neglect this aspect of our lives as doing so will often lead to burnout, injury or just a less enjoyable professional experience which would lower your value to your organization. One of my favorites and by far the most beneficial to my career was becoming a member of Toastmasters. The cost is minimal and it took about 1 ½ - 3 hours per week but the benefits of being comfortable speaking in front of people made it a very valuable growth experience. I believe that so many of you who are reading this could have a major impact on our profession through sharing your knowledge but the fear of public speaking is holding you back. Other subjects such as photography,

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9 video shooting/editing, website development, blogs, social media outlets, animal training, search & rescue, rodeo, falconry, wildlife trapping/rehabilitating, and I could go on and on, are all things that many of us like and even participate in. These personal interests can be of great value to your team and if you have not already, can easily be incorporated into training opportunities for your team, volunteers and your community members. Exercise is my other favorite and the value of this is overwhelmingly growth oriented. We have a strenuous job and being physically fit will go a long way in allowing you to remain valuable to your city, team and family. Even a moderate amount of exercise that raises your heart rate for a period of time will go a long way toward extending your career, or if you finally leave the profession, your retirement. To my knowledge, our industry does not have a fitness standard but if you are not able to run 50 yds, climb a fence and carry a medium size dog back to your truck, then you may want to challenge yourself to start exercising. If a formal education is part of your growth plans there are online certification and degree programs for various areas of study if your goal is to finish what you started in the past or you finally figured out what you wanted to do as an adult! Most of the supervisory positions that open up are requiring a degree and there is nothing like promoting up to really challenge yourself and grow. My degree is in Agronomy (soil & crop science), yet here I am in the animal welfare profession. Finally, where you place your value in life will affect every aspect of what you do. Euthanasia, project deadlines, upset citizens, staff conflicts, family, health and personal issues all creep up on us and can lower our value if we are not grounded and understand why we are in this profession. I do my best to live according to my life verse Romans 14:8, and after being in this profession for 16 years I still feel blessed and look forward to each day that I can walk into a municipal animal shelter and add value to my team, and the community that we serve. I did not get very in depth with this article but if anyone would like some specific details or ideas for your situation please contact me at paul.oneill@cityofdenton.com or Thank you and I look forward to hearing about your stories of growth the next time we meet! PS: This is a great site to get some encouraging leadership ideas.

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11 Here we have Tim Hall from the Galveston County Animal Control

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