Animal Control Unit

As part of the Police Department's Special Operations Division, the Animal Control Unit handles matters involving both wild and domesticated animals all over the city.

Animal Control Officers are frequently called to handle vicious animal complaints, cruelty cases, problematic wildlife, injured animals, barking dogs, abandoned pets, and many other types of cases in which an animal needs help.

The unit works closely with Raleigh Police Department's patrol officers and detectives, who sometimes encounter mistreated, starving, or vicious animals when they respond to calls or serve search warrants. Animal Control Officers also check in with Wake County sheriff's deputies who find abandoned pets in Raleigh residences from which the tenants have been evicted.

One of the common misconceptions that the Animal Control Officers must battle every day is that all the animals they take into custody will be euthanized. The Animal Control Officers make every effort to find an animal's owner before they take it to the SPCA of Wake County, if they suspect it may be a pet, and they also work closely with rescue groups that attempt to find homes for the nearly 5,000 animals they pick up each year.

Unfortunately, some wild animals such as raccoons, bats, and foxes must be euthanized because they tend to carry rabies. However, the Animal Control Officers have contacts at rescue organizations where they can bring other injured wildlife to be treated and rehabilitated, as well as rescue groups that specialize in reptiles and other exotic pets.