Continued…To Serve & Protect
By Kyra Kirkwood
Photos by Karen Maze
Animal cops aren’t just in New York City. They’re right here in Southern California.
Meet Lt. Nemesio Arteaga of the Pasadena Humane Society and SPCA (PHSSPCA). He’s been with the organization since late December 1996, and he loves the difference he’s making in the lives of animals.
Originally from Mexico, Arteaga came to America as a young boy wanting to help people. He became a police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department before he discovered PHSSPCA three years later. He didn’t know much about the job when he first applied, but he knew it allowed him to do both things he loved best: protecting people and protecting animals. He could be a cop and help animals at the same time.
He quickly climbed the ranks from animal control officer to investigator, then up to sergeant and eventually lieutenant. “This is home for me,” he said.
At PHSSPCA , the humane officers are armed and must meet the same standards and receive the same level of training as any California police officer or deputy sheriff. They wield the same sort of authority as police officers, such as making arrests.
“We have to deal with the same individuals the cops deal with on a daily basis,” he said. “They often see us as not being ‘real police,’ so they challenge us. Some individuals can be very, very challenging.”
Many humane officers in Pasadena, of which there are currently four, come from law enforcement backgrounds, as did Arteaga. “You have to really love animals and people to really do this job effectively,” he said.
In any given day, Arteaga will respond to anything from calls about stray animals to complaints about animal abuse. During the summer, about 90 calls per day from Pasadena and beyond flood his office. One rough day involved Arteaga responding to a call about a man “getting back” at his neighbor by stabbing the neighbor’s dog. He was subsequently arrested and prosecuted, said Arteaga. Another case involved a man offering to take care of his sister’s Chinese Crested dogs. He did that by tying them to a chair on the patio outside for three days in the summer heat. One died. It was another conviction for Arteaga.
“We treat animal cruelty and abuse as the serious crimes they are,” he said. “It’s difficult to understand why people do certain things.”
Many of the calls to the humane officers involved neglect. Arteaga is still haunted by one of the worst neglect cases he’s ever seen. It involved guard dogs stationed at a local car dealership overnight. The dogs were routinely let out after closing and put back in their kennels before business hours, but no one bothered to feed them or give them water. This allegedly went on for weeks. A customer on the back lot of the dealership saw the dogs in their deplorable conditions, and she alerted law enforcement. Arteaga arrived on scene and saw the three very emaciated dogs. One did not survive. What really gnaws at Arteaga is the fact that just outside the dogs’ kennels was a huge barrel of food, untouched.
“All [the handler] had to do was dip a bowl in that barrel,” he said. The handler and the owner of the guard-dog company were eventually arrested and charged.
Other incidents of neglect involve people leaving their dogs in cars during the summer, people just not understanding dogs need to have water and shelter available to them at all times, or that they can’t tie their dogs up for more than three hours. Sometimes, a simple warning is enough to resolve the case, Arteaga said.
He enjoys educating the public about proper and humane pet care and ownership. More than 80 to 90 percent of the time, education and follow-ups take care of the problem, he said. Arresting owners isn’t the first course of action. Arteaga notes how he wants to educate them, give them a chance to fix the problem, and keep their pets safe. But there are always those who ignore advice, and that’s when more action by the humane officers is necessary.
Being an animal cop is as rewarding as it is difficult. At the end of the day, Arteaga leaves the office knowing he’s made a difference. “You’ve got to remind yourself constantly you can’t solve every problem out there,” he said. “But you do your best to make the best impact you can. You go home knowing you did the best you could do.”
Kyra Kirkwood is an Orange County, California-based freelance writer specializing in dog reporting. Visit her website at www.kyrakirkwood.com.
