National Animal Control Association Annual Meeting -- Scottsdale, AZ

LACA Desert Cajuns!

The National Animal Control Association annual meeting and training conference for 2005 was held in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Scottsdale Hilton Resort and Villas. This beautiful venue allowed ample meeting, class and banquet space, along with an oasis-like outdoor social area and pool where attendees networked with one another. Representing the Louisiana Animal Control Association were David Marcantel of Lake Charles (President, center left in photo below, with his better half at far left) ....

Dez Crawford of Baton Rouge (Vice-President, below), and ...
















Henry Wimberly of Alexandria (Board Member, below).

The conference offered outstanding classes and an excellent opportunity to meet and network with animal control professionals from all over North America. While the NACA officers and board members arrived a day ahead of the conference and stayed an extra day to conduct their business meetings, the annual general membership meeting, banquet and classes were held from June 3 through June 5.

Classes offered on June 2 included:

"Legislative Issues in Animal Control" -- techniques for drafting effective and enforceable legislation

"Crime Scene Investigation and Processing" -- techniques and procedures for chain of evidence and other investigation procedures

"Search and Seizure"

"Understanding Bio-Terrorism and Creating an Emergency Plan"

"Designing a Cruelty Task Force"

"Interviewing and Interrogation Techniques"

"Domestic Violence, Bestiality, and Sexual Abuse"

"Discretionary Decision Making for Field Officers"


June 3rd's class agenda included:

"Finding Good Homes"

"HAZMAT First Responder" -- dealing with hazardous materials in the workplace and in the field, with an emphasis on animal hoarding situations

"Dealing With Rabbits and Pocket Pets" -- detailed care information and techniques for investigating pocket-pet cruelty

"Bite Stick Certification"

"Meet Your Match" Dog Adoption Program -- ASPCA and IAMS program developed to assess personalities of dogs and adopters to assure a good match

"Working With Prosecutors to Win Cases"

"Recognizing Meth Labs"

"In or Out of the Classroom, We've Got You Covered" -- humane education techniques for schools and elsewhere in the community

"Are We Really Worlds Apart?" -- an overview of animal control and humane enforcement issues around the world


The classes concluded on Saturday with:

"Ritual Crimes and The Occult" -- a sobering class dealing with ritualized animal cruelty

"Federal Animal Fighting Investigations"

"Working With Placement Partners" -- how to forge effective relationships with breed rescue groups for dogs, cats and other animals


Complementary continental breakfasts and lunches were sponsored by: Alley Cat Allies, PETsMART Charities and HLP, Inc., Swab Wagon Company, Feld Entertainment, PETA, Radio Systems Corporation, Jones Trailer Company, and C Specialties. The Virginia Animal Control Association sponsored the President's Breakfast. Our thanks for everyone's generosity.

Class outlines and Powerpoint presentations from the classes are available to dues-paying members from the LACA lending library so your organization can review the courses if you were unable to attend. The ASPCA and IAMS donated a manual for the "Meet Your Match" program to assess dog and owner personalities for better adoption matches, and Alley Cat Allies gave us a VHS called "The Humane Solution" which teaches animal control agencies how to implement effective trap, neuter and return programs with feral cat populations. The Animal Protection Institute donated "Living With Coyotes," which offers humane solutions to coyote problems, both in book form and in DVD format. Spring Farm CARES Sanctuary provided a manual for dealing with rabbits and other pocket pets in cruelty investigations, and the AVID microchip company gave LACA a training DVD for microchip implants if your shelter is considering implementing microchips into your adoption program. Our thanks to these vendors for their generosity. Your editor will work on building a bigger lending library of books, DVDs and videotapes now that we have a head start on our library.

Anyone interested in borrowing any of these materials should contact Dez Crawford at 225-774-5056. Dues paying members may borrow two items at a time for up to three weeks. This is on the honor system, so please return library items by or before the due date!

This re-cap of the conference will be continued soon, with photos.