1. The Modern Day Dog Catcher: “Protector” of Animals
by Shannon Lindsay
“Yes, I hate the term dogcatcher. You can quote me on that.” This was Jana McMillan’s
quick response when asked whether she felt there would always be a stigma that comes with
the job of animal control. If there was one thing that she wished people understood better about
her job, this would be it. However, she’s not sure that the stigma will ever fully go away.
If you were to walk into the animal control building in Hudson, you would be immediately
greeted by the loud noise of barking dogs, one being McMillan’s own. She owns four dogs, but
this particular one she found on the job. Animal control is only required to hold stray dogs for
seven days (she always holds them for at least ten, though). After this time, McMillan generally
turns the dogs over to a local animal shelter if no one has claimed them; however, the shelter
wouldn’t take this particular animal because it was concerned by his loud barking. McMillan
ended up keeping him for such a long time that she became attached to him and decided to
keep him as one of her own. This is certainly not something you would see from any bad “dog
catcher” portrayed in a movie. McMillan’s office is scattered with dog beds which is explained by
the fact that she often likes to bring her dogs into work, so this is where they would stay. She
also admits that if one dog has been in the kennel there for a little too long, he’s allowed to
come in, too.
McMillan, the Animal Control Supervisor for the Hudson Police Department, is originally
from Texas, but has held this position here in Hudson for almost 17 years now. She earned her
college degree in criminal justice and was trained as a police officer; however, there were not
many available jobs as an officer at the time, and this is what brought her to New Hampshire.
She was working on loss prevention when the job opening for an Animal Control Supervisor in
Hudson opened up, and she felt that her background of dealing with animals in Texas might
make her a good fit for this position. She has remained here ever since.

2. While many people may still believe that the job of animal control is simply to pick
animals up off the street and get rid of them, McMillan wishes to assure these people that this is
not the case at all. These officers actually wish to help both the animals and the people who are
in bad situations with them. McMillan likes to think of herself and her fellow animal control
officers as “educators, mediators, rule enforcers, and protectors”, but not dog catchers. She
expands on this by explaining that they are first and foremost protectors of public health, but
that they are secondly protectors of the health of all animals; this includes wild animals along
with domestic ones. McMillan wishes that more people were able to recognize all of the different
jobs which animal control holds and that it was presented to the public in a more positive light,
stating, “We want people to not see us as the dog catcher anymore.”
The most frequent calls which McMillan receives year-round are calls about loose dogs
(whether these calls be from the dogs’ owners themselves or from others who see them loose),
dogs barking, chicken complaints (surprisingly enough, this is becoming a more common issue),
and pets left in cars (her personal pet peeve). She currently has wounds bandaged on her arm,
but says that she doesn’t receive calls about vicious animals too often and that she has
probably only been injured by an animal four or five times in all her years with animal control.
She explains that during spring and summer, calls about wild animals are more frequent.
Generally, educating the people who are having the problem is necessary to solve the problem,
though there are sick animals on occasion which need to be taken care of. There are
occasionally situations of animal abuse to take care of, as well, and these are never enjoyable.
One thing McMillan has noticed to have changed a lot over the seventeen years she has
worked with animal control is the amount of people leaving animals abandoned; whether it be
on the street, in a parking lot, or in an apartment; she’s seen it all. This is apparently something
she never used to see, though. During the first few years that McMillan worked for animal
control, she saw not even one abandoned animal, but now it’s a fairly frequent occurrence. She
quickly places the reasoning for this, stating that the bad economy recently has affected

3. people’s pets just as much as it has affected all other areas of people’s lives. People think that
they have the money to care for an animal, but when they can no longer afford it, they discard it
wherever possible. Many of the abandoned animals have noticeably bad health issues which
the owners, most likely, could not afford to fix.
While she enjoys that her job is always different on a daily basis because this keeps it
interesting, McMillan also admits that this is what makes it challenging. She finds herself telling
her new assistant, whom she is currently training, “I can tell you how to handle this situation
right now, but next time it might be different.” McMillan finds it easy to admit that her least
favorite calls are those which involve a family losing or having to give up a pet. Her favorite
calls, on the other hand, involve helping a family or an individual solve a problem with a pet. She
states, “I like to get info out”, and she explains that this is something that animal control as a
whole organization is trying to offer more of. There is an Animal Control Association which she
is a part of and which is working towards presenting animal control in a more positive light. They
wish to be seen as helpful to the public, rather than scary.
One service which McMillan and other animal control officers are trying to offer more
frequently to the public are rabies vaccination clinics. The Hudson Animal Control division is
offering two clinics this year. One was hosted this past July in collaboration with the Humane
Society of Greater Nashua, and one is being hosted in collaboration with the students from the
Alvirne High School vet tech program. The students will be working at the clinic, and money
raised from the clinic will be going to help the vet tech program at the school. McMillan was also
eager to share the information that Alvirne will be hosting their own vaccination clinic next
Saturday, September 20th from 9am-2pm. They will have four different vaccines available for
dogs and three for cats, as well as micro chipping and testing for heart worm and Lyme disease.
While McMillan is not directly associated with this particular clinic, she still finds it just as
important to get the information out to the public because it could be helpful to a number of
people and their pets, and this is what is, and always will be, most important to her.