New MADACC Director Assesses the State of the Milwaukee Animal Community

David Flagler is a man who has been around the proverbial block when it comes to animal control.

He's traveled all over the country, up and down both coasts and everywhere in between, in jobs that all have one thing in common: helping animals. In mid-November, he landed in Milwaukee to tackle some of the biggest issues facing the area's animal community as the new executive director of the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission.

Given its role as a shelter for some 13,000 animals each year, MADACC gets a surprisingly small amount of press, even as some hugely complicated problems continue to persist.

Flagler hopes he can change things for the better and shed some positive light on the organization. He recently sat down with Patch to talk a little bit about himself and the state of affairs with Milwaukee County's animal community.

Where were you prior to coming to Milwaukee?

In the field of animal control, I’ve been somewhat of a gypsy. I've had the opportunity to run several of the largest animal control organizations in various states. I originally got into this profession by training military dogs for the U.S. Air Force, and then later the Department of Treasury got me out of the military early to work narcotics dogs for them on the Mexican border. During that time, I developed a tremendous loyalty to animals, because they were great partners for me.

I decided to go back to school, and while I was studying wildlife resources, I took a part-time job as an animal control officer for my community. After awhile I was able to use my love of dogs towards my work. Since that time, I've moved from one animal control job to another. I started as the only animal control officer in a community to becoming a field supervisor in another community and worked up to becoming the chief field supervisor in another and then eventually was promoted to the director of that organization. From there, I’ve had the opportunity to be the director in Portland, Ore.; Salt Lake County; Fairfax, Va.; Fulton County (Ga.); the city of Jacksonville, Fla.

So I've had an opportunity to be able to serve various communities and what I have found is that the dynamics of a community vary, in the culture of that community and the availability of resources to be able to make your mission happen. But generally the problems facing the communities are all the same. In all of the communities that I’ve worked, there have always been issues of surplus animals and the tragedy that there are just not enough animals that have been spayed and neuetered and we have more animals than we can possibly adopt.

What made you take this job?

Milwaukee had some unique issues, and I've never been involved in an organization that had the type of issues that Milwaukee faces. And I always enjoy new challenges. Milwaukee is one of the few organizations I've come to that is not in crisis. Generally I like to come into an organization that has some sort of crisis, and I like being the hero – I like being able to solve the problems. In a way, we do have a crisis in Milwaukee in that we are seeing no relief in the number of animal intakes that come into the shelter, and that I find very troubling.

What are some of those 'unique issues' you referred to?

Nationwide we are seeing a reduction in euthanasia, which is attributed to more and more animals spayed and neutered. Here in Milwaukee we are not seeing that trend in euthanasia. My job is to figure out what that barrier is that's keeping us from moving forward and see what I can do to solve that issue so that one day, we can have a hope that Milwaukee will become a 'humane community.'

So many elements are involved – the culture of the community, a large number of volunteers available to push the issue forward, animal rescue organizations. All of those elements need to work together to make this happens.

How will your background and prior experiences help Milwaukee accomplish that?

The advantage I have is that I have a wide base of knowledge and experiences. Every community is different, so my knowledge and experience will be expanded in the Milwaukee area. I know how things have been successful in my career and I hope to pull out those tools to use here in the Milwaukee area. But again, Milwaukee is unique and I think I'm going to have to pull out a whole new skill set.

What can the average person do to help?

I believe it’s the average person that is paramount to me accomplishing this mission. If you're a pet owner, you have responsibilities that go along with pet ownership. You need to accept those responsibilities: that your pet is spayed and neutered, that your pet is kept on a leash, that your pet is licensed. A lot of pets find themselves lost, and the animal is not able to tell us where they live. They need owners' assistance in placing identification.

The biggest problem in our community is an over-abundance of a specific breed, and that breed is the pitbull. Pitbulls make up between 45 and 50 percent of the animals that come in. I have a specific to message to the pitbull owners out there: if you are breeding pitbulls, stop. Stop now. You are not doing the breed any favor and you are certainly adding to the problem we have in this community. Pitbulls are extremely difficult breeds for us to place and by continuing the breeding of them, it's making it harder for the breed and our ability to find new homes for them.

What are your initial impressions of Milwaukee?

Having an opportunity to live in various shelters, when I came to MADACC, I was really delighted in finding the employees that are working here, the strong commitment of the volunteers, the commitment of the animal rescue groups that are here. For that reason, I'm seeing all these people work so hard that I've become very protective – maybe over-protective – of the folks that are trying to make this organization a tremendous success.

I walk back to the kennels and see the tremendous job that the kennel people are doing. I caught employees taking breaks to sit down with the dog that is having a rough transition of being in a kennel and they are loving on that animal and I see that compassion. It hurts me to think that people are out there saying that we are a bunch of callous people.

Milwaukee has so much to offer in the way of improving the plight of animals in our community and I'm just really jazzed that I get to be a part of it.