Policing Animals: Control, Citation, and Licensing
The main activity of any animal services department is to police the non-human animals in the city. This is tricky business since it is not simply a question of animals behaving badly, but of the humans who enable that behavior. After all, it doesn’t mean much to a pooch who gets a ticket—only the person in charge of that pooch. Nonetheless Animal Services employees have long engaged in practices of watching, catching, and attempting to control animals around the city. This section provides a few examples of how this happens.