Dog Catcher Retires After 45 Years

Ron Thomas spent 45 years as a member of Inkster’s animal control, he has chased or rescued thousands of dogs, cats, captured a 14-foot boa constrictor, fought the alligator, and walked a stray llama back home. Now he is ready to leave his job as the longest-serving animal control officer in Michigan. It is his experience with dogs that distinguished him among his peers and other city workers as such a valuable animal control officer. Some say he is probably the last of his kind.

He began working with dogs while he was in the Marines. After leaving the service, he was hired by the Michigan Humane Society. It was the humane society that sent him to Inkster to work as a member of theAnimal Control team. He says that he has picked up between 300 to 400 dogs each year he was a part of animal control.  The key to bringing the dog in Thomas said, is to never show fear.

For the past four years with the downturn of the economy Thomas worked more closely with dog rescue organizations that would allow him to turn over the stray animals he finds as it was becoming increasingly difficult to place them in the time allotted by the laws of Inkster. “It’s a lot easier on my mind if I find a home for them,” Thomas said. “If I don’t, I have to put them down and I don’t want that.” He dropped off his last catch, an American bulldog mix he named Patches, with one of the animal rescue organizations on his last day of work.

Thomas, who has three daughters and six grandchildren, said he plans to spend his retirement working with dogs.

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