Job shadowing the livestock inspector?  It was great!

When the baby blue polka dotted rubber boots are part of your outfit, you know it’s going to be quite a day.  Job Shadow Assignment #4 started at John’s Qwik Stop in Urbana, where I was picked up by Stephanie Black, Livestock Inspector.  

 

Inspector Black is one of 5 livestock inspectors and lives in Urbana.  She works for the Animal Industry Bureau of Iowa’s Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS).  Her top boss is Secretary of Agriculture, Bill Northey.  But within the Animal Industry Bureau, the top person is the state veterinarian, Dr. Dave Schmitt.  Under him there is an Assistant, 6 district vets, 5 livestock inspectors and 2 compliance officers.  You can imagine how big of an area Stephanie covers since she is one of five.  I was about to find out.

 

We left in her very neat and organized car (I was envious) at 9:00.  On our way to Dike, we talked about the responsibilities and what she thinks about her job.  State law only allows her to inspect licensed facilities.  She inspects veterinarians, commercial breeders, hog buying stations and we were going to all three.  Stephanie said she is a public servant and is there to help facilities.  We’re starting out great!

 

First, we went to a place called Pom Acres, a world renowned Pomeranian breeder, who even has won several Westminster Show ribbons.  This was an immaculate place, with several buildings and the puppies were kept in the basement of the house.  All the dogs were bathed, nails trimmed and even had an outside heated kennel.  Stephanie was treated as a friend and was obviously well respected.  She praised the kennel owner for a job well done.  When we returned to the car, I found out they are the best there is in her district.  As a dog lover, I was especially rooting for Pom Acres to have a clean inspection, because they keep the dogs as family when they are done breeding.  I met Cloudy there, who is 14 years old and she is given the absolute royal treatment.

 

Next we are off to a Rescue Operation in Holland, they rescue dogs before they are put down at dog pounds.  Thank goodness there are people who will do this.  We pulled up and there were dogs all over the place, in the yard and the house looking out the windows.  A lady came out and said she was dog sitting for the owner who wasn’t there.  One dog kept barking while looking out the window, the lady laughed and said the dog was standing on the kitchen counter.  Anyone who knows me probably knows what my face looked like at that, but Stephanie took everything in stride and said she’d be back another day.

 

Where are we going next?  By this time, I have absolutely no idea where I’m at, but did know we were going to a Chihuahua breeder!  Again, this place was very clean.  Not to the extreme that Pom Acres was clean, but still good.    We couldn’t see the puppies, because we’d been to other places first.  I forgot to mention, we had to stay very clean and use hand and shoe cleaner after every stop.  Carrying germs into a kennel could wipe out every animal and the person’s livelihood.  As a rookie, I wouldn’t have thought of that!  We sat at the kitchen table and went over all of their paperwork.  Apparently, the American Kennel Club Inspectors have inspectors as rigorous as ours and had been there earlier.  I had no idea of the records a breeder had to have for the state and AKC.  Wow.

 

We stopped to have lunch and then were off to a place where I needed the polka dotted boots, a hog buying station.  Here we went into the station, counted, made sure they were all tagged and had no down animals.  Now so far, no one could tell I was a city girl, but here it was apparent.  I was just sure the pigs knew where they were going after this stop.  Hogs of every shape, size and color and I had never seen anything like it!  The place was noisy chaos, but organized chaos.  The employees had hogs moving through one gate after another to get them where they wanted.  And there were a lot of fighting animals in there.  Crazy place, I was sure glad there were people who wanted to do that for a living too. 

 

After this, Stephanie said we were going to a cat breeder.  I should’ve told her I was allergic to cats.  Luckily, it isn’t like anyone knows she’s coming, she just drops in, so we went a different direction and to our last stop (Thank goodness – I was exhausted), the Midwest Veterinary Clinic.  On this stop, we inspected the kennels and all is well.

 

 

On our way back to Benton County, we talked about things she would like to see in her job.  After the floods, it was apparent that we did not have adequate animal rescue teams in our state.  We decided that was something for me to work on.

 

At every stop we made, Stephanie was professional and treated everyone with respect.  They gave her the same treatment in return.  In only one day, I learned a lot and was very proud of how she handles herself and how she represents our state.  If you should see Stephanie, please thank her for the fine job she does.