Robert Sawtelle

A friend of mine emailed me the following information about a win win situation for solving the challenge of stray animals.

“In an Arizona county stray animals, like cats and dogs were costing the county 38 million dollars a year. A local sheriff offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay. The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners.

They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who’d like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.

The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals. I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas.

He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.

He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO. HE IS THE ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER. THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY”

Some prisons around the U.S. are doing the same…taking in strays but not enough for my two cents. The ones that are are training their dogs as service dogs…helping the handicapped, and elderly. Some even are trained to detect cancers and the threat of fires. The Japanese are experimenting with early earthquake detection.

Training by prisoners also helps the prisoners with their own self worth and self esteem. Many for the first time show love, compassion and caring for another living creature. It must be working for the inmates because there is a waiting list to be admitted to the program.

Here’s the question: Do you think this program should be expanded to all the prisons and save the taxpayer money at the same time?

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