Author: ACOAM

County Representatives

Do you have an interest in becoming more active with ACOAM? We would love to have you join our team! ACOAM is actively looking for more County Reps to help represent the specific needs and voices of our members across the 14 counties in Massachusetts. If you are interested, please reach out to ACOAM President Joe Chague at jchague@cityofpittsfield.org.

Wildlife Fact Sheets

The Wildlife Rehabilitators’ Association of Massachusetts (WRAM) has put together species specific pamphlets for Massachusetts wildlife. These pamphlets include some natural history, guidelines for assessing the age of an animal, some common scenarios and how to deal with them, some resources, and some clarity on common issues.

Bats
Chipmunks
Corvids
Coyotes
Ducks
Fox
Opossum
Raccoons
Raptors
Seabirds
Songbirds
Squirrels
Striped Skunks
Swans and Geese
Wildlife Support and References

Dick Stein Academy Scholarship

Richard “Dick” Stein was the town of Canton’s Animal Control Officer for over 30 years, and he was a founding member of the Animal Control Officers Association of Massachusetts in 1980.  With the creation of ACOAM he became a driving force in the move to educate and professionalize the officers in this much joked about and maligned job. Dick was there for the inception of the ACOAM certification course and he helped mold the course into one of the most in -depth educational opportunities available to animal control officers anywhere in the United States.

Dick served as President of ACOAM and later held other board positions as well.  In 1995 the Animal Rescue League of Boston and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals honored Dick with the prestigious ACO of the Year award which he richly deserved.

His years of effort to build respect for his chosen profession helped create the recognition that ACOAM has today with local and state government. ACOs who never met Dick Stein will benefit from his efforts on behalf of the organization that he helped to create, and from the tone that he set that has helped to bring Animal Control from the image of the lowly, cartoon-ish, dogcatcher to a respected branch of public safety officer.

This scholarship is offered as a thank you and a memorial to honor the years that Dick Stein devoted to the Animal Control Officers Association of Massachusetts, and his contribution to the certification academy offered by the organization that he helped create.

NEW Wildlife Rehabilitator Locator

Check out Find a Wildlife Rehabilitator – A webpage that was just released by Mass Fish and Wildlife on July 30, 2019.

The new page contains updated information within the text, a new table, and most importantly a new map feature. The map allows a user to enter their location (either town or full address) to find rehabilitators closest to them, which eliminates the guessing game of trying to figure out where you are relative to the towns of the wildlife rehabilitators listed in the old table. There is a small embedded map as well as a full screen view, and the zoom extent of the map is restricted to protect the privacy of the wildlife rehabilitators.

There is a legend of the symbols used to easily identify which rehabilitators accept the various categories of animals, and this information is also contained within the pop-up box for each rehabber, along with their contact information. 

Please keep in mind that wildlife rehabilitators are not authorized to rehabilitate Endangered, Threatened, or Special Concern species protected under MESA. Wildlife rehabilitators are also not authorized to rehabilitate venomous snakes, black bears, moose, or white-tailed deer. Additionally, any issues related to injured coyote, bobcat, fisher, river otter, and beaver should be referred directly to MassWildlife. 

Massachusetts Animal Control Officer Of The Year 2019 Nomination

The Animal Rescue League of Boston and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for the annual Massachusetts Animal Control Officer (ACO) of the Year award.

The award was established to honor an animal control officer whose efforts in his/her local community throughout the year have promoted responsible pet ownership by:

  • Manifesting a dedicated, humane attitude toward the treatment and well being of all animals.
  • Effectively enforcing pet responsibility laws.
  • Conducting public awareness and humane education programs.
  • Maintaining cooperative working relationships with other agencies involved with animals, such as state and local government departments, other ACOs, and animal protection groups

Nominations should be submitted in writing and may come from government officials, other officers, animal protection organizations, or private citizens.

Submissions should explain how the nominee has met the above criteria and should be sent to both:

Alan Borgal
Animal Rescue League of Boston
10 Chandler Street
Boston, MA 02116
aborgal@arlboston.org

Kara Holmquist
MSPCA
350 South Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02130
kholmquist@mspca.org

The deadline for nominations is September 24th, 2019.

From The ACOAM President

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the ACOAM board and its members for making this year’s annual banquet and training day so successful. The training portion was held Friday, October 21st and started at 9am. It was attended by over 75 guests representing all different kinds of backgrounds. ACOAM thanks, Doctor Gary Patronek and Doctor Martha Smith – Blackmore for taking time out of their busy schedules and making this training so successful. The Banquet, awards, and elections ceremony were held later that evening and was attended by over 90 guests. It is a time that we come together and recognize and honor those dedicated ACO’S and citizens from the past year. We had a great time with lots of laughs. Again thank you to the board and members for making this evening one of the best events that we have ever had.

Congratulations to ACOAM’S board of directors for being reelected for another year. This year’s award recipients were as follows; ACOAM’S IMPACT award was presented to Clerk Magistrate of Wrentham District, A. Ross Pini Jr. ACOAM’S Richard A Stein award presented to Leslie and Ed Grinnell of Eddie’s Wheels. Certificates of appreciation presented to State Representative 9th District Shawn Dooley and our Shining Star awards went to Taunton Police Officer Evan Lavigne, Grafton Fire Department and to Medstar EMS. Our coveted Golden Bone award went to Brenda Hamelin ACO of Millis / Medway. The ARL of Boston and the MSPCA presented this year’s ACO of the year award to Thomas J. O’Connor, animal control department of Springfield. We also had a good time in honoring / roasting one of our own and one of ACOAM’S founding fathers for his upcoming retirement, Paul Murphy, congratulations Paul.

Thanks again, what a night!

ACOAM President

Joseph M Chague