Animal control officer April Wheldon stands in front of her van in the parking lot of Sitka National Historical Park. (KCAW/Redick)
After months of turmoil surrounding the animal shelter, Sitka has a new animal control officer. April Wheldon is a former veterinary technician and dog owner. She says she wants to rebuild trust with the Sitka community. KCAW’s Meredith Redick tagged along on Wheldon’s morning routine to learn more.
I’m riding along with April Wheldon, Sitka’s new animal control officer, on the way to Sitka National Historical Park. We’re in a van that reads “Have a nice day, neuter and spay!” on the side in large turquoise letters. Wheldon has a radio clipped into her belt and a bag of dog treats in her pocket.
“I’m always keeping my eyes open for any animals, you know, whether they’re stray, any loose animals, of course,” she says as we start down the gravel trail. “And then if I do come across anybody with dogs walking on leash, I always am going to go greet them and say hi to them, because I want them to like me.”
Wheldon has decades of experience working with animals. She worked at the San Diego Zoo, at a vet clinic in Juneau, and for the past few years, as a veterinary technician at Pet’s Choice clinic in Sitka. She says she’s had her eye on the animal control position for a while, and she decided to apply when the job opened up a few months ago.
“I just saw that need for the animal control position,” she says. “And the thing is, I have the animal experience, but I don’t really have the policing experience, which to me, I just wanted to do something new and different.”
In her first few weeks on the job, she learned how to file legal paperwork and approach complex situations like neglect and hoarding.
“Unfortunately, there can be some bad situations with like, I know in the past, we had like, some big hoarding situations with like 60 cats, some pregnant, and kittens, and I know a lot of those animals were not in good health,” she says.
Those cases can be especially taxing, but she says she tries to find the bright side.
“People bring in animals that have been neglected, but they’re bringing them in, so they’re making the right moves to get things done,” she says. “So it’s, you know, you just don’t want to be judgmental in that situation. You just want to be there to help as much as you can.”
Part of Wheldon’s job is writing citations – like for unlicensed animals or off-leash dogs in the national park – but she says pulling out the notepad isn’t her first step.
“It’s, let’s see if we can solve the problem first,” she says. “Sometimes people just need help fixing their fence, you know, or something like that. Sometimes they don’t realize that they’re getting out in a certain way, or they’re jumping the fence, you know.”
Today, the park is quieter than usual — all we’ve seen is a handful of red squirrels clambering through the brush.
“Usually I pass somebody,” she says as we round the corner to return to the parking lot. “There’s like, not many dogs out today.”
So we head back to the shelter.
Wheldon started her job here at a turbulent moment in the shelter’s history. For years, the shelter has been supported by both the animal control officer, a position within the Sitka Police Department, and a group of volunteers. Last summer, the volunteer group, Friends of Sitka Animal Shelter, was locked out of the shelter by the previous animal control officer, who cited security concerns. A month later, the animal control officer briefly went missing while hiking on the Katlian Bay road. She was ultimately located safe but didn’t return to work. While the position was vacant, police euthanized six animals by gunshot.
Wheldon says she knows many of the volunteers from her vet clinic work, and she hopes to rebuild trust – and volunteer presence – this spring.
“Transparency and communication — I think communication is probably the biggest problem,” she says. “I know that that’s kind of what everybody is saying is like, you know, everybody just wants to know what’s going on. I’m an open book.”
A few volunteers are back in the shelter on a limited basis now, but Wheldon says it’s a priority to get all the volunteers back in the building. In the meantime, she says volunteers have been active in the community. The group started a “home-to-home” program to coordinate foster placements and adoption outside of the shelter.
“The volunteer people are actually doing more work, keeping them out of the shelter and, like, doing home-to-home visits,” she says. “And that’s good for everybody, really.”
That program has been successful. Back at the shelter, Wheldon introduces me to the lone shelter resident today, a timid six-toed cat with fluffy orange fur. A volunteer, Maggie Woodlin, is crouched on the floor of the enclosure, peering into an open cat carrier.
“Six Toes!” Woodlin coos gently. “You wanna come out? You wanna come out?”
The cat stares at her from the back of the carrier — today, he does not want to come out.
Wheldon says she likes to sit in the cat enclosure when she has time.
“When I’m not on calls and stuff, I kind of just sit in there, and that way I can do, you know, paperwork and stuff and be on my computer,” she says.
Sometimes, she plays music from playlists with names like “Cat Music Jukebox” and “Cat Bliss” — calming instrumentals to help the skittish six-toed cat relax.
As we leave the cat enclosure, Wheldon gestures to a newly-painted wall in the hallway. The city is painting and updating parts of the building, while there aren’t a lot of animals here.
“I feel like we’re starting fresh,” she says. “We’re starting new. We’re gonna, you know, get things under control and and, you know, get everything back to the way it should be.”
In the meantime, she’ll be playing “Cat Bliss” for any felines who show up at the shelter.
