Animal welfare is my life but it's also making me lose my mind.

Tag: Animal Welfare

  • A Special Hell: Part 1

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    Jessica Kooistra
    in

    *Disclaimer: this post will have some graphic stories and photos. I encourage you to read on anyway. It may not be what the general public sees on a daily basis, but it is my reality. My job. The most frustrating part of my profession is that people assume there is a black and white. An…

  • Third World Welfare

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    In the 15 years now that I have been part of the world of animal welfare in America I have seen so many changes. Changes for the better. Changes that make the general public more aware. Changes that demand better from us humans. It was not always a given that your cat or dog would…

  • A Day in the Life.

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    You’ve seen ‘Animal Cops’ on Animal Planet right? Those people in uniforms that find awful puppy mills and starving horses and take the asshole owners to court. Or the one who picks up a hit-by-car dog and rushes it to the vet just in the nick of time. Well, that happens sometimes. The tedious, long…

  • DOA

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    Will you die one day? Of course you will. We all will. Do you have pets? Do you know who will take care of them when you are no longer here? I was called to a house where police were on scene with a man who had passed away in his house. DOA (Dead On…

  • She-Ra

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    I had just started working the road alone, after accepting the position as animal control officer and going through several weeks of training. I pulled up to a house in East Grand Rapids where a woman had reported a stray dog in her yard. I got out of my animal control vehicle, a large cargo…

  • Meatball

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    I almost made it through this summer without a foster kitten. Almost. Today I received a call from a man that saw a truck slow in front of his home and dump out what appeared to be some kind of small animals. The truck took off before he could get a closer look or a…

  • The Bond

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    It was a sunny Wednesday morning. The call I received was that EMT’s are requesting an animal control officer at their location to assist with a dog at the residence. I arrived and was told they need to transport the elderly female in the home to the hospital but there is a dog in the…

  • My Rainbow Bridge

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    The pain free death. The good death. The humane death. The debated death. Working in a field where euthanasia is an everyday topic, influences the way you think about death. I would be lying if I said it does not affect you. I would be lying if I said you don’t get used to it.…

  • White Horses – Black Dog

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    It had already been a busy spring day with multiple calls. Late in the afternoon I received a call about a dog laying in a horse pasture seemingly injured and unable to move. This was not a pasture in the countryside however, it was a piece of land in city outskirts zoned to allow the…

  • Allow me to introduce myself.

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    by

    Jessica Kooistra
    in

    A blog about a girl who set out to rescue animals and is slowly loosing her mind because of it.