Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Roanoke County animal control Officer Eric Hubble searches for a snake last month at Leita Boynton's house. Warmer weather, weaned young ones and more food means humans and wildlife clash in spring and summer.

Hubble pets a new addition to Roanoke County's animal impound.

Roanoke County animal control Officer Eric Hubble looks over dogs last month at the county impound.

The day was beautiful, but the news was bad:

Right in the middle of a recent sunny afternoon, Salem police were notified of a fight in progress at the pond in Longwood Park.

Sgt. C.W. King responded and discovered a couple fighting over bread.

The foul-tempered pair were, in fact, a duo of ducks.

"It looked like two mates, one male and one female," King said. "They seemed like they'd worked it out. Where one would go, the other would follow."

Police officers don't usually handle these kinds of animal complaints, but as seasons change and temperatures rise, the number of such calls typically increases.

"We sort of prepare for a higher call volume in spring and summer than in winter months," Roanoke County animal control Officer Ken Broughman said. "As weather warms, people tend to bring their animals with them. Animals get loose, they have conflicts."

According to Officer M.W. Quesenberry, animal control supervisor for Roanoke, "You have a lot of infant wildlife being born and roaming after they've become weaned. Then, of course, you've got the longer daylight hours. And when you've got the vegetation and the food source plentiful ... you're going to have problems."

On patrol

Animal control Officer Eric Hubble has been on Roanoke County's force for eight years. He's part of a five-member team that keeps the peace in the sometimes dicey instances that involve people, domestic animals and occasionally civilization's unavoidable brushes with wildlife.

They responded to 2,400 calls in 2007, 250 of which involved wild animals. That doesn't include follow-up visits or incidents that officers encountered while patrolling, said Sgt. Tim Wyatt, who supervises the team.

As certified officers, they also handled nearly 150 police calls, working everything from sobriety and license checkpoints to police backup.

"If they happen to be the closest to an incident, they'll just handle it and pass it on," Wyatt said. "They've become a great resource in that regard."

About lunchtime one day in June, Hubble's white Chevrolet pickup truck, its bed loaded with traps and cages, rolled up to a house in west Roanoke County where a woman had discovered a snake on her deck.

"Unless it's posing some issue inside the house, we don't generally get involved," he said. "It's illegal in Virginia to relocate wildlife."

Leita Boynton met Hubble at the front porch.

"It's not a blacksnake and it's not a green snake and it's not a diamondback, and I don't know what it is," she exclaimed. "My daughter-in-law is pregnant and was just in a car accident, T-boned. And now a snake."

The daughter-in-law had spotted the reptile on the back porch that morning, and Boynton took cellphone pictures of it. Disturbed by the attention, the snake slithered under the deck and disappeared into a hole before Hubble arrived.

Hubble, light in hand, hunkered down under the porch, found the snake's hiding place and pointed the light into it.

"Fill it in," he suggested, after learning it did not lead into the basement.

Afterward they flipped through a book of photographs to try to identify the snake, deciding it was either a blacksnake or a pine snake. Hubble offered some general precautions, then advised Boynton, who's new to the area, where to register her dog.

Hubble later made runs through nearby parks and checked neighborhoods where complaints have been made in the past. In the hotter months, he's sometimes called to cars with animals locked inside.

"We have an infrared thermometer that will shoot into the vehicle and tell us how hot it is," he said. "Some people have no idea how quickly a locked car can heat up, even with the windows cracked."

Unconfined pets can prove problematic as well, especially when they roam.

"Sometimes an animal that doesn't want to be captured, you aren't going to run it down," Broughman said.

Sometimes simple catch traps will work, and sometimes officers use loops called "snappy snares." In more serious cases, tranquilizer darts are used, but that's trickier than it might seem. The dart usually has to hit a particular spot on its quarry to have the right effect, and striking the wrong spot can prove fatal to the animal. The medication in the projectiles can be potentially fatal to humans, so any dart that misses its target has to be found. There also are darts that carry tracking devices, but those, Broughman said, are usually so large they have to be surgically removed.

"If it comes down to protecting the life of an animal and [protecting] the public, our first goal is to protect the public," he said. "It has to be."

Tough calls

And yet, Broughman said, they're often seen as bad guys.

"Most people are afraid we're only there to take their animal and charge them," Hubble said. "As long as they maintain what they're supposed to, we're there to help."

Broughman said he's often asked why officers pick up stray animals, the alley cat that's not bothering anyone. But, he said, that same cat can carry feline AIDS, feline leukemia or rabies. He said he's seen cats so eaten up with mites they've scratched off their own ears.

"A dog or cat found with a valid tag on it, there's a real close to 100 percent chance they'll get returned to their owner," Broughman said. "The stray animals that get put out and picked up, a percentage of them will go to the SPCA for adoption. We do pick up a lot of strays. And a lot of them may not leave here. But it's a humane death. It's a better solution than letting them continue to reproduce and keep going on, over and over."

The toughest calls come when an unvaccinated pet is scratched or bitten by an animal that's either rabid or unable to be tested, he said.

"To have to say to someone, 'Your little 7-month-old dog, who really isn't injured that bad ... you need to take it down and put it to sleep.' That's not a good day."

'Every call is different'

About 3 p.m. the day of the snake, Hubble got another call: A Southwest Roanoke County woman had been bitten on her left hand and right forearm by a neighbor's dog she was helping to corral.

"We have to investigate every bite," Hubble said on his way to the owner's house. "Unfortunately, most people usually don't report them until they experience health problems or quarrel with the pet's owner. And rabies vaccinations are like flu shots. There's always a chance they won't work."

Hubble found the dog at its home. Its owner was at work, but the man's son and daughter were watching movies in the living room. The dog, an Alaskan husky, stood out back, peering warily through the sliding glass door.

But after examining the dog and the residence, and talking on the phone with the owner, Hubble didn't have to take the husky. Its shots were up to date, the family was able to keep the dog inside for 10 days, and the daughter, who is 21, was able to sign a list of quarantine agreements.

"Every call is different," Hubble later said. It was a sentiment Broughman echoed.

"You don't know what you're going to be doing till they call you on the radio," he said. "It's enough stress. It keeps you young."