New dog warden at county pound plans outreach

YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning County Dog Warden's office has a new leader.

Overseeing the office is not what Lisa Hill expected when she began volunteering as a dog walker in 2009, and her path to the job was not exactly a straight line.

Still, a little more than two months since taking over as interim warden, Hill got the nod from Mahoning County commissioners Thursday to head the department full time and accepted the position.

She said she is excited and eager to begin building on the foundation established by her predecessor, Dianne Fry, who retired July 1 after 13 years at the helm. Hill said community outreach and education is her focus.

"We are looking forward to getting out into the community more, with some education about dog ownership, how much it costs to own a dog and just the day-to-day of dog ownership. And we want to really encourage spaying and neutering, which will help control the county's pet population. That's important," she said. "And we want to increase dog licensing compliance, because that's very important for getting dogs back home to their owners."

After four years of dog walking with the dog warden's office, she took a position with Angels for Animals in 2013, where she oversaw the shelter's dogs, managed their intake and care, medical treatment, and temperament, placement and adoption work, and served as a public contact regarding dogs in Angels' custody.

In 2015, she accepted an offer to become the executive director at Animal Charity of Ohio, a position she maintained until her return to the dog warden's office in 2017. In September of that year, she became a kennel canvasser, attending to dogs at the facility and spending afternoons going door to door to ensure license compliance.

In August 2020, Hill assumed the role of kennel supervisor, a position she maintained until assuming the big chair in July.

Across her 17 years working in dog and animal management, Hill has become all too familiar with the problems facing animals and people in Mahoning County, and she knows the challenge will not be easy to meet.

"We are seeing a lot of animals being abandoned. We get several calls a day for people who are moving and can't keep their pets for some reason. We just have a lot of people who can't keep their dogs right now," she said.

The dog pound's kennel population hovers around 80 dogs daily, the maximum the staff can reasonably manage, and provide proper attention, outdoor time and meaningful care.

The office is also understaffed, although that is likely temporary. Hill said they have 11 staff members and ideally should be at 13. When Fry retired and Hill moved up, that created one staffing gap, and another person in the office took a different job elsewhere.

"We are right now, we're down a few staff members because of the changes, but I anticipate being back up to full staff by the end of fall," Hill said. "Then we can have two deputies on the road every day, and enough people in the building to care for all the dogs."

ANIMAL CHARITY CUTS

Hill is also painfully aware of the challenge the county faces with Animal Charity suspending both its humane and animal welfare services.

"It definitely does affect the animals in our county," she said. "We're stepping up; all the police departments are stepping up. There are other shelters stepping up too, to cover this gap until this issue is resolved and hopefully it does get resolved sooner than later."

Animal Charity over the past two to three months has effectively ceased operations, other than maintaining care for the animals in its custody, as the nonprofit's financial crisis deepened. In June, the organization suspended its animal-control services -- responding to loose and injured animals, bites, dangerous-dog and nuisance complaints, owner emergencies, hoarding cases and requests for assistance from police, fire and social-service agencies.

Animal Charity continued its legally authorized humane work, including investigating cruelty, abuse and neglect, seizing animals and pursuing criminal cases. In August, however, it also suspended humane investigations and animal intakes because it could no longer sustain the staffing, veterinary, housing and other daily operating costs. That left local police departments responsible for animal-welfare cases, although most departments lack the specialized personnel, shelter space and other resources needed to manage them.

Animal Charity had provided those services countywide without a government contract, relying largely on donations, grants and fundraising.

Animal Charity has asked Mahoning County commissioners for a $350,000 annual service contract -- about 18% of its $1.9 million 2026 budget -- to restore operations.

Board Secretary Rachel Hammond also argued that state law requires the county to provide some financial support for an appointed humane agent and prosecuting counsel. Commissioners acknowledged the urgency and said they were reviewing the organization's expenses, but had not committed to funding it.

Hill said while the dog warden's office will do what it can, its scope is limited.

"How we serve Mahoning County is that we're in charge of picking up stray dogs, investigating dogs running at large and dog bites, making designations (nuisance, dangerous, and vicious), and ensuring license compliance," Hill said. "Right now with Animal Charity not being able to get agents out there, we respond to those locations if we get a call, just get eyes on them. If we see an abandoned dog in a house, we can't go in, but we can call local police because they handle that part right now."

Hill said she knows the county is as eager to see the problem solved as she is.

"The commissioners are working with Animal Charity to try to help with some of that financial burden," she said.

Hill said the two agencies -- Mahoning County Dog Warden and Animal Charity of Ohio -- have helped each other in the past, and she hopes they'll be able to work together going forward to solve the problems.

"We do help a lot when they are out. If they're on a case with a lot of dogs, and ask for help with transport, we're there. We help wherever we can," she said. "They've helped us in the past, if we get a dog in very bad condition and we know the owner, they'll come pick it up so they can press charges."

Having worked for both, Hill said it is important for the community to recognize the distinction between the two agencies.

"People sometimes don't understand that difference," she said. "I'm lucky that I got to do all those things, to serve the animals in our community in so many different ways."

County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said he has known Hill for many years, while she worked under Fry and he's confident she's the right person for the job.

"Lisa, she definitely has the breadth of knowledge and experience, working and operating at our shelter. For all her years of service, she knows operations pretty well, and she worked side by side with our former dog warden, Dianne Fry," he said. "And Dianne recommended her very highly for the position, and a lot of the staff spoke very highly of her."

Traficanti said Hill is well aware of the expectations the county has for that office.

"We made it clear to her just like we did with Dianne, that we want good customer service, we want animals to be treated humanely. And we like to see those adoptions happen whenever possible. Lisa brings all of that to the table," he said.