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When the McKamey Animal Care and Adoption Center takes over Chattanooga’s animal control services in July, it likely will start up with a new staff of animal control officers, current employees and city officials said.

That’s because the center wants college-educated officers and none of the current seven officers, including the supervisor, holds a degree.

The McKamey center’s director, Dr. Amanda Wojtalik-Courter, said experience could trump a degree, and the center is not ruling out hiring the city’s current officers.

“We sort of tossed the net wide,” Dr. Wojtalik-Courter said. “All candidates will be considered based on the strength of their application. ... We are not ruling out experience as a qualification.”

But even if they were hired, animal services workers, who now are employees of the Chattanooga Police Department, would lose their city benefits and retirement packages, since the McKamey Center is a private entity.

Dr. Wojtalik-Courter said the center is offering benefits and comparable pay, but she declined to elaborate on those Tuesday.

“When we met with the McKamey folks, they couldn’t promise anything,” said Officer Liberty Muse, who has been with Animal Control for about a year. “I’ve got a year of retirement built up, and my kids use the city employee clinics. I’ve got a family to think about.”

Many of the city’s current animal control officers may not remain in their jobs when the city transfers animal control from the police department to the private McKamey Animal Care and Adoption Center at the end of June.

That uncertainty is leading Animal Control’s seven officers and one secretary to look for other jobs.

“We’re trying to find jobs within the city, but that might not happen,” said Officer Karen Satterfield, the supervising Animal Control officer. “There are other things that I could do, but they may not be things I really like to do. I really like this job.”

The Animal Control officers now on staff received a letter from Police Chief Freeman Cooper recently telling them their jobs will be eliminated June 30, city personnel director Donna Kelley said.

Ms. Kelley said the city is working with at least five of the seven officers to place them in various jobs around the city.

“We’ve got a few of them in consideration for other jobs,” Ms. Kelley said. “Some of them would actually be in a promotional situation.”

After eight years on the job, Officer Satterfield said she is too old to transfer to the city’s other public safety jobs, and working with animals has been a long-time passion. Before this job she was an animal groomer, she said.

“We have some officers who are trying out for the fire department,” she said. “But you’ve got to be 39 years old or younger to try out for those jobs.”

Dr. Wojtalik-Courter said she is prepared if none of the current set of officers stays on. One reason the center prefers college-educated employees is because Chattanooga State Technical Community College offers veterinary technician and assistant degrees, she said.

“We’re open to any applicant, as long as they are willing to be trained,” Dr. Wojtalik-Courter said. “We did want to give people with a degree and experience the first opportunity.”

The McKamey center will send new animal control officers to a school in Atlanta for training, she said.

Officer Satterfield is not sure the city will have many animal control officers on the streets come June 30, as current officers leave the department for new jobs.

Officer Muse said she has applied for a job with the Chattanooga Fire Department. If she is accepted, she would start April 25, she said.

“It might mean that we have one or two officers at the end,” Officer Satterfield said. “We’ll be here though, however many of us there are left.”

The Humane Educational Society will continue to collect animals with its own staff of animal control officers, who pick up animals outside the city limits and in surrounding communities. Those animals will be housed and adopted from the society’s Highland Park Avenue shelter, Officer Satterfield said.

JOB OPENINGS

The McKamey Animal Care and Adoption Center is looking to fill 30 to 35 positions by June 30 when it assumes control of city animal control operations. Included in that are 10 openings for animal control officers. For more information on the jobs, visit www.mckameyanimalcenter.org/employment_opp.htm.

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