On the Record With: Robin Van Sickle

When the animals of Lake County become lost, abandoned or involved in other animal-related incidents, the Lake County Health Department’s Animal Care and Control center is there to help.

Animal Care and Control also works to prevent the spread of rabies through vaccinations and education, and is responsible for enforcing county ordinances and state laws pertaining to animal-related complaints, among other tasks.

Robin Van Sickle, program coordinator of Animal Care and Control, went on the record with Lake County Journal reporter Cassandra Dowell to talk about the different situations the department deals with, what people should do if they come across a stray animal and tips for pet owners in the winter season. Van Sickle has worked at the program for 12 years and is enjoying her second year as program coordinator, she said.

What are the different services Animal Care and Control provides?

Our program offers a stray holding facility for dogs and cats of Lake County. We will also take in animals that are on bite quarantine because they were involved in a bite incident, because of cruelty or neglect situations [and] animals that have become lost from their owners. We do have the tendency to get in some exotic animals, livestock [and] small pets, such as birds or reptiles. On occasion, we have gotten in the exotic cat. We’ve had goats here, rams.

We do house as much as we can here, but when we can’t house an animal that is needing secure housing, we do a contract with, [for example], a horse stable, or we have gone out on cattle that were loose on the farm. We don’t have the ability to transport those animals, so we contract for those services.

We respond to wildlife that are injured and we will do a field retrieval on that animal; but, because we don’t have the permits to house wildlife, we work with a wildlife rescue that will take them.

We also do rabies registration for Lake County residents. All dogs and cats have to be rabies inoculated and registered in the county. We do the database for that, the tracking. We work with the animal hospitals doing the registration to the owners. There's about 84,000 registered cats and dogs in Lake County and we process those registrations on an annual basis.

What happens to animals if you can't find their original owner?

We are one of the only animal controls in the state of Illinois that do not offer an adoption program. Mostly, that is because we do not have the facility to hold animals for a long period of time. So, we're actually fortunate enough to work with many different rescues. Mostly Orphans of the Storm. But, if there is a rescue that is licensed in the state of Illinois in good standing, we will work with those rescues as well. There are times when we have cruelty cases where we get an influx of animals and it is unforeseen for a shelter to take in 20 or 30 dogs at a time, so we will network with multiple agencies to get those animals placed so that they do get adopted.

What are the most common animals the department comes in contact with?

They’re fairly equal [between] dogs and cats. We do get more cats in the summer time, especially stray or feral cats. There [are] kittens that are typically born outside and then people bring them in. Dogs get returned to owners more so than cats do.

I really don't know why more people don't go looking for their cats. We have a lot of nice cats that go out for adoption.

What areas do you service?

We only service unincorporated Lake County. However, we do contract with police departments to provide services in the incorporated areas if they request our service. For instance, let's say in Mundelein. If the police department requires our assistance with an aggressive animal or a severe case of cruelty where they just don't have the knowledge or the expertise, they can either call upon us for free advice or they can call upon us to provide extra service – we're always willing to provide extra service where it's needed.

What's the first thing someone should do if they come across a lone dog or cat?

The first thing they should do is put themselves in a position where they’re not in jeopardy. We never want to suggest someone to approach a stray dog or cat. You don’t know if they’re friendly. Sometimes dogs can seem so friendly and wag their tales, but as soon as you go to grab the collar to read that tag, they’ll turn and bite. First thing we want is people to go inside and make a phone call to the local police department or animal control if they know we service their area. A lot of people don’t know who their local animal control agency is, whether it’s the police department or us.

About how many animals can be housed at your facility?

We do not turn anybody away. So if we run out of kennel space, we will create temporary housing for the animals. There was a time when we had taken in 30-some pit bulls on a cruelty case. We had to house them for the cruelty investigation and we did not have enough kennels back there. So we had those makeshift wire crates that were down our hallway and back room area. It really was a huge workload for us.

We have 45 dog runs that are indoor-outdoor. So, the dogs that are here get fresh air. They are allowed to go outside in their free will. ... During the nicer weather, the doors are left open so they can go in and out as they please. They’re housed individually for safety and sanitation purposes.

We've got 20 to 25 cat cages. But, again, if we come into a hoarding situation where there's an extensive amount of cats, we do provide [extra] cages.

Do you come into cruelty or hoarding situations often?

It does [happen often]. Two to three times a year, we'll get a hoarding case. The dogs that we get in or the cats that we get in must be held during the court process. So, we can have these animals anywhere from just the 24 hours of [the] intake period up to months working out the court case. We try to get an order from the court that we can release the animals for adoption. We try to get that done within the first 30 days they are here.

What are ways people can help prevent animals from losing their homes in the community?

Donate to a pet food pantry. A lot of times, people will relinquish the animals to us because they can't afford the food. And if that's just the bare minimum that they need is going to the food pantry for their pet, that will keep them at home. The Lake County Pet Food Pantry is run by Animal Education and Rescue. Their facility is out of Grayslake through Central Bark. One thing that is usually sought after is kitty litter. People always bring food but they forget that cats use a litter box. Litter can be very expensive.

What is something you wish more pet owners would do?

I really wish people would have identification on their cats and dogs. They really need to be wearing their rabies tags that have current contact information on them. That is their license plate. When people find an animal, they turn it in to the police department or they call the number on its tag. They don't have to come to us if they have that identification. It's really important for those rabies tags to be on the animals. If they don't have the tags ...  they really should have them microchipped. Every animal that comes into our facility, and now even police departments, have microchip scanners. Every animal gets scanned two to three times before they get sent out for adoption. That microchip will get that animal home.

What are some special considerations pet owners should take in the winter?

You always want to keep your dogs on a leash outside when you’re walking them. You really don’t want dogs going out on the ice. Dogs can get themselves into thin ice situations. One of our wardens just got paged on night call; the Antioch Police Department had a dog that fell through thin ice. When a dog is in that situation, we think about public safety too. We don’t want people going out to rescue their dog ... So, keeping animals off the ice is very important; keeping them on a leash so they don’t go and run off into thin ice situations.

Also, in this cold weather, if an animal runs off, it's going to be exposed to hypothermia. They're going to be exposed to frostbite. And, once they run off – if it's dark out – they're going to get cold very quickly.
Animals that do live outside on a regular basis get acclimated to the cold, so that's fine. If it's a dog that lives outside, they're generally used to that and they don't want to be inside. ... But what we do want to make sure is that the dog has a proper dog house, proper bedding to keep it warm, has drinkable water in a bowl that's not frozen. We recommend heated water bowls. A lot of people will provide a really nice dog house and put a nice fluffy blanket in there, but if the water spills over and gets the blanket wet, now it's a big ice chunk. So, we don't recommend blankets either. We recommend straw or hay – some type of a bedding like wood chips that can be easily cleaned up, removed and refreshed. Those actually provide some really good heat sources, insulation.

The same goes for cats. There is a fairly large feral cat population in Lake County. And the caretakers that have the feral cats, they should have housing as well.

Something that's really cheap and really easy is a Rubbermaid container, just flip it over and cut a hole so the cat can get in. ... You'll want to make sure it's secured down so it doesn't blow over.
A lot of people put salt out for the sidewalks. They should make sure the pads of their [pet's] feet are clean before they come in. They like to lick their paws, which can cause irritation to the tongue. Pay attention to your pets, that's really the key.

I read online that you have some permanent pets at Animal Care and Control. Is that true?

We have two resident birds now. We used to have a resident cat but he went home with one of wardens. So, he's in a forever home now. He's really liking it there. He was with us for seven or eight years.

What made you interested in working with animals?

I’ve always been interested in working with animals. Originally, I wanted to be a veterinarian. And I did go to school under a pre-vet degree and I started working at an animal hospital ... I did an internship doing wildlife rehabilitation and that’s where I knew I wanted to work with the animals that needed my help. I quickly became frustrated with wildlife rehab. There was so many laws governing who can help which animals that were federally protected. There were not a lot of people that could do medical help for those animals. For instance, the ones that we had problems with were bald eagles. When I was doing my internship, they were coming into contact with toxicity ... We would get them in and they were sick. You needed a permit to fly them out to this center in Minnesota. You needed a permit to take in the animal, you needed a permit to fly the animal ... I loved the work. I loved the exposure to all different types of animals, especially the birds of prey. It was just really neat. So that’s when I knew I wanted to help animals that couldn’t help themselves, that didn’t have a voice. When I graduated college with my biology degree, I went back to the animal hospital that I was working for and a position here came up as an animal control officer. It just kind of happened to fall into place. It fit what I was looking for.

Van Sickle lowdown

Who she is: Program coordinator of Animal Care and Control

Village of residence: Antioch

Family: Husband, Tony, sons Ben, 6, and Tommy, 8

Hobbies: Snowmobile racing with family, camping and boating in the summer