Will County Animal Control chief would rather help than chase pets

Anna Payton, the new administrator for the Will County Animal Control Department, wants the county to do what it can to keep animals in their homes rather than catch them when they’re strays.

Twenty-one dogs, 11 cats and a guinea pig named Butterscotch were housed at the Will County Animal Control facility on Cherry Hill Road in Joliet as of Friday.

Picking up strays is the traditional function of animal control. However, Payton wants the county service to be more of a resource for animal owners who need help keeping their pets.

“I like to look at how we can be proactive as opposed to reactive,” Payton said. “Animal sheltering is very reactive if you think about it. If you look at how we can keep animals in their homes as opposed to finding them homes, it’s proactive.”

She pointed to a low-cost pet vaccine clinic being held Tuesday by the SNIP Society at the Wilco Area Career Center in Romeoville as an example of proactive animal control.

Payton wants pet owners to think of the Animal Control Department as an agency that can guide them to low-cost vaccines, pet food pantries and other resources that can help with the care of animals.

“We’ve got to change people’s perspectives,” she said. “We’re here to help.”

Payton, who lives in Plainfield, came to Will County from Aurora, where she was director of animal care and control for five years. Previously, she was executive director for the Naperville Area Humane Society and animal control director for Kendall County.

“We are very fortunate to gain the experience and professionalism Anna brings following her many years of caring for animals,” Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant said in a statement announcing Payton’s appointment. “I look forward to working with her on strengthening our animal programs and services offered to the public.”

Payton also is president of the Illinois Animal Welfare Federation and serves as a board member for the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and the Wanda Muntwyler Foundation.

She is an adjunct professor in Aurora University’s Department of Human-Animal Studies and teaches courses titled Forensic Investigations Involving Animals, Animals in Society and Behavior, Training and Rehabilitation of Animals.

In Will County, she has a staff of 10 employees, including four animal control officers.

Will County Animal Control serves the unincorporated areas of the county and provides services to 15 municipalities.

The agency gets about 3,500 calls a year, and some can be unusual. One such call came several years ago, when animal control had to pick up a black bear cub, dispatcher Brian Vanek said. The cub was taken to Big Run Wolf Ranch, a wildlife refuge in Lockport.

“He’s been there ever since,” Vanek said.

“We actually had two horses that were randomly dropped off on somebody’s property,” animal control officer Michelle Sergott said. “They were in bad shape.”

Butterscotch, the guinea pig at Will County Animal Control, was left in a cage in a park. A dog in the county kennel was picked up after it was found tied to a tree.

Payton wants people who are at the point of abandoning their pets to call Will County Animal Control.

“We’re here to help people, give them resources on what they can to to keep an animal in the home,” Payton said. “Don’t leave them in a park. Don’t tie them to a tree.”