09/11/2026
If you’ve noticed Root n Round has been a little quieter than usual lately, there’s a reason. 😅
Next week is the Oregon Animal Control Council annual training conference, and since the conference is basically in my backyard this year, I’ve been helping put it together. I am also hopefully helping keep our Board President from having to shoulder the entire damn thing herself and letting her cheese completely slide off her cracker. 😏
I serve on OACC’s Executive Council, and since it’s not something I talk about here very often, I thought this was probably a good time to explain what we actually do.
Animal welfare sits at a weird intersection of a whole bunch of professions. Animal control officers, law enforcement, shelter and rescue staff, cruelty investigators, veterinarians, prosecutors, attorneys and other industry professionals can all end up working different pieces of the same cases. The outcome for both the animals and the people involved can depend pretty heavily on how well those pieces fit together.
One of OACC’s biggest goals is providing education, training and resources that help improve and standardize animal services across Oregon.
Our annual conference brings those professionals together for training on things like cruelty investigations, evidence and case development, body condition scoring and welfare assessments, changes in Oregon animal law, courtroom testimony and mock trials, sheltering and field practices, and a whole bunch of other subjects that fall under the enormous category of “things you never realized animal control needed to know.” Because apparently “go catch that goat” is only a very small portion of the job description.
Oregon also has a dedicated Animal Cruelty Resource Prosecutor through the Oregon Department of Justice. Jake Kamins, a Senior Assistant Attorney General, presents at our conference each year and helps keep animal welfare and law enforcement professionals current on Oregon animal law and what happens when those cases actually make their way into a courtroom.
But some of the most valuable education happens outside the scheduled classes.
These conferences put veterinarians, investigators, shelter professionals, law enforcement, attorneys, nonprofit organizations and companies that support animal welfare through grants and philanthropy all in the same place. Inevitably, I learn something I didn’t know and meet someone who knows way more than I do about something I will eventually need help with.
Animal welfare is approximately 40% knowing what you’re doing and 60% knowing who to call when you absolutely do not!
And sometimes, I can become that contact for somebody else.
That is how I, a civilian with a bizarrely specific Rolodex ended up helping find placement for roughly 115 animals from the West Coast Game Park seizure last year.
And yes, before anyone points it out, a good chunk of them live with me now. Networking has consequences.
Animal welfare problems are rarely solved by one person or one organization. They’re solved because somebody knows somebody who has the right knowledge, the right equipment, an empty stall, an appropriate foster, livestock experience, veterinary expertise, legal knowledge, transport, funding, or just the one weird resource nobody else thought to ask about.
Building those relationships before you’re standing there thinking, “Well, s**t. Who do I know that can handle THIS?” matters.
There can be a LOT of variation in animal services from one Oregon community to another. Different agency structures, different resources, different budgets and wildly different caseloads. Bringing everyone into the same room, learning from the same experts and building relationships across jurisdictions helps move us toward more consistent, evidence-based and humane animal services statewide.
It’s one of those behind-the-scenes pieces of animal welfare that most people probably never think about, but it’s pretty damn important.
So if the farm page has been quiet lately, and gets even quieter next week, that’s where I am.
Helping put on a conference, learning things, collecting more weirdly useful contacts, trying to keep everyone’s cheese firmly on their respective crackers, and adding to the extremely specific set of skills I have somehow accumulated over the last couple decades.
Sometimes those skills are incredibly useful.
Sometimes I wish I didn’t have them. 😂
📸: OACC Conference 2024. Holding the one animal that actually makes me want to crawl out of my skin. See? Learning opportunities 🤷♀️
