San Antonio animal-control officers work the graveyard shift – San Antonio Express-News

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
Animal Care Officer Estephen Centeno speaks with Norma Villarreal as he holds a stray dog found in her backyard early on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. Animal Care Services officers on the third shift support San Antonio Police Department related calls that range from rattlesnake removal to animal cruelty cases.
Animal Care Officer Estephen Centeno holds a stray dog found in a backyard early on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. Animal Care Services officers on the third shift support San Antonio Police Department related calls that range from rattlesnake removal to animal cruelty cases.
Animal Care Officer Estephen Centeno, left, and Sgt. Melissa Smith restrain a dog they named “Mikey” as they remove him from fence he was tied to at an apartment complex on Timber View. The dog was unwanted and left there, with food and water.
“Mikey,” an unwanted dog found tied to a fence at an apartment complex on Timber View, looks out from a compartment on an Animal Care vehicle early on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022.
Animal Care Officer Estephen Centeno who is a self-professed animal lover, shows tattoos of his own pets, which include a frog.
Animal Care Officer Estephen Centeno, right and Sgt. Melissa Smith work to restrain a dog they named “Mikey” as they remove him from fence where he was tied at an apartment complex on Timber View. The dog was unwanted and left there, with food and water.
Officer Estephen Centeno of Animal Care Services works the third shift early on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022.
SAN ANTONIO — On their first call of the night, two of Animal Care Service’s third-shift officers found a hurt, stray dog hiding behind a backyard shed on the West Side.
ACS Sgt. Melissa Smith, 54, and officer Estephen Centeno, 28, drove from Animal Care’s campus to retrieve the black Labrador-mix pup. After driving through dark stretches of Highway 90, Smith steered their truck down neon sign-lit streets to a house behind Kennedy High School.
Jenna Fernandez, 23, had called about the dog, which had been holed up in her neighbor Norma Villarreal’s yard for a week. After talking to the women, the officers examined the emaciated dog. It had a slight limp. Centeno cradled the dog in a blanket. He scanned the pup and found a microchip, but it didn’t have a registered address or phone number.
Centeno was able to handle the injured dog because of his years of experience and training. Neighbors, on the other hand, had to keep their distance.
“She wouldn’t let anyone near her,” Fernandez said, standing beside Villarreal and her daughter, Stephanie Ozuna, 17. “I said to them, ‘Leave food and water.’”
Centeno left his business card with the neighbors and a phone number they could call to check on the dog’s status.
The officers took the dog to the ACS kennel for vaccinations, and they put in a request for veterinarians to care for its wound.
“The dog was injured, but not to the extent of an emergency” Centeno said as Fernandez rubbed the dog’s muzzle.
On ExpressNews.com: City of San Antonio animal shelter could fall below ‘no-kill’ standard for first time in five years
The officers of ACS’ third shift patrol the city at night, answering calls of all sorts, including reports of animal cruelty. They also go to crime scenes — including drunk driving, assaults and homicides — where animals were present and in danger.
The night shift started in April. ACS spokeswoman Lisa Norwood said the department previously had on-call officers to handle overnight calls.
The department established the late shift so San Antonio police would no longer have to field calls in the early hours about pets or strays in peril or behaving badly. Norwood said the new shift also allows ACS to respond to more service calls.
“SAPD is able to focus on law enforcement calls for service, and ACS is focusing on concerns more animal related,” she said. “It’s not only increased the department’s capacity for response, but it’s also ensured that the most appropriate parties respond to residents’ concerns overnight.”
Norwood said ACS officers received 1,076 overnight calls between April and September. They took 699 animals to the city pound and returned 37 to their owners.
Four ACS officers work the third shift seven days a week from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Cadets in the ACS Officers Academy also take overnight rotations before they land permanent assignments.
The officers have had their share of wild encounters so far. They’ve been called to remove a rattlesnake from a backyard stoop on the South Side, wrangle a loose cow on a highway and retrieve a python coiled in a long vacuum-cleaner box.
“Things come alive at night,” said Smith, who supervises the second and third shifts. “We have a lot of interesting things we come across. Anything and everything you possibly can imagine comes up animal-wise.”
Smith, an Army veteran, has been with the agency for 10 years. A friend encouraged her to apply for an ACS job, a career path she’d never considered before then.
A stray dog found in a backyard is gently handled by Animal Care officers early on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. Animal Care Services officers working on the third shift work the city, often supporting the police when animals are involved in situations.
She’s rescued an injured raccoon in a house’s crawl space and picked up a fawn with head trauma after being struck by a car.
Centeno said a speech by former ACS assistant director Vincent Medley at a conference — extolling the horizons-expanding benefits of animal-care work — inspired him to apply at the city kennel.
Born and raised in San Antonio, his love of reptiles and spiders is on display on his sleeve of tattoos. A South American horned frog named “Pinky” and a blood python named “Murky” are among six technicolor images inked on his left arm.
Centeno
said he’s been bitten only once on the job, as he was trying to vaccinate a dog. Its owner wasn’t properly holding the canine, and it bit off one of his fingertips.
On a recent weekday night, Smith and Centeno took a break at a gas station. Customers curiously eyed their truck, which was covered with large decals of canines and cats and red letters on the rear: “Be Responsible.”
Sometimes the calls third-shift officers receive don’t amount to anything. That was the case at Vaqueros Hideout Bar on West Poplar Street, where a caller said four aggressive dogs were bothering patrons. When the officers arrived, the bar was closed and the dogs were gone.
Other calls require more extensive investigations the next day, like the one they received about a dead dog at a home near Vance Jackson. The officers referred the case to ACS’s animal-cruelty investigators for a closer look.
The officers’ next stop was at Kenzie Park Apartments on the Northwest Side to see about an abandoned dog. After circling the complex, they found a white terrier tied to the metal fence surrounding the community swimming pool. On the ground next to the dog, the officers found a food dish, shampoo bottles, dog cologne, well-worn soft toys, water bowls and a green doggy jacket.
Abandoned by its owner.
“They left him alone in the dark,” Smith said. “He’s scared and terrified. He doesn’t know why his human isn’t coming for him. I wish he could tell us what he’s gone through. But I don’t know that we would want to hear.”
The pair arrived back at the ACS campus on the West Side at 2:45 a.m. to check in the dogs — the terrier and the injured dog found near Kennedy High School. Centeno went to the intake center and removed two vials of vaccinations from a refrigerator — one for distemper/parvo, the other to protect the dogs from kennel cough. He filled the syringes with the vaccines (he was trained by an ACS veterinarian) and vaccinated the now-calm terrier on the truck.
“Who knows how long it will take to build trust in him again,” Centeno said.
On ExpressNews.com: ‘Really, that’s a job?’: Only 4 wildlife biologists work at airports nationwide. One is in San Antonio.
He completed his impound report, which included an assessment of each dog’s condition, where it was found and other details.
Centeno gave the terrier an identification number and a name — “Mikey.”
He set blankets, food and water in a kennel for each dog. He entered their data in the computer system that alerts the daytime shift of new arrivals. The information helps owners reclaim their pets and alerts people who are looking to adopt a pet.
The third shift went by fast.
They tended to new arrivals, drove to around the city, completed paperwork and put in a request for a veterinary exam for a stray dog. The hours slipped by and before they knew it, they were clocking out before sunrise.
Smith doesn’t mind waking up in the light of day. She did a two-year stint on days as a city permit officer, but prefers the always-interesting cases on the third shift.
“I absolutely love coming to work,” Smith said. “I think we do make a difference in the community. I believe in what we do.”
[email protected]

source