Name: Savannah Baller
Position: Corporal Animal Protection Officer
First joining the ARL in 2015, Savannah has served in five different positions across the ARL, but serving as an Animal Protection Officer is where her heart has always belonged. Dedicated to partnering with our community and protecting animals across Berks County, our community is relying on Savannah and her team of four to be on call 24/7/265 days a year.
We asked Savannah a couple of questions to share with our community.
Name any pets with their age/breed/etc that you have at home.
“Moose” is a 5-year-old male Great Dane.
“Six” is an 8-year-old female pitbull mix.
“Alvin” is a 5-year-old male domestic short hair cat.
“Milly” is a 5-year-old female domestic short hair cat.
“Herbert” is a 1.5-year-old male domestic medium hair cat.
All are rescues!
How long have you been working at ARL? What different roles have you taken on during your time here, and when did you know that serving as an Animal Protection Officer was the career path for you?
I started at the ARL in September of 2015 as a front desk receptionist. From there, I moved to the cat care team and then the dog care team. After some time, I then transitioned to the surgery team and became the surgical administrator. While working in that role, a position opened as a humane police officer. I had interest in this field when I first started at the ARL, although the opportunity for an opening wasn’t previously available. Knowing it would be out of my own pocket, I decided to take a chance and signed up for the training to become a Humane Society Police Officer (HSPO) as it was something I had always wanted to do. After finally joining the department, I knew it would be where I would stay and felt I made the most difference in.
How does your department serve the animals at ARL and animals in our community?
Whether the animals we bring into the shelter are coming in as strays, surrenders, or search warrants, our department always aims to put their safety and protection first to the extent that Pennsylvania law allows. We are often put into dangerous situations and must utilize our tools to remove animals safely and effectively. Currently, our Sergeant and I wear two hats and are both Humane Police Officers and Animal Control Officers (HSPOs). This means we can handle anything pertaining to animal cruelty and neglect as well as animal control related concerns, within our jurisdiction. Our department also has two additional Animal Control Officers, who will be sworn in as HSPOs in the next few months. We work as a team to help protect the animals in our community to the best of our abilities.
We know there is no typical day in the life of an Animal Protection Officer, but what are some of your day-to-day duties?
Our days typically consist of responding to calls pertaining to cruelty complaints or stray pick up requests, but it is most definitely a job where you never know what you’re going to get next. Most of the calls we receive are people filing cruelty complaints due to concerns regarding animals which we then go and investigate. Some calls come in from owners of properties regarding animals who were left by from tenants who need help. We also often assist local or state police departments with animal control related calls. For example, aggressive or injured animals, pets in a home with a deceased owner, animals in vehicular accidents or when owners are arrested. I also work with our Sergeant to develop better ways to run our department more effectively.
What is one thing you wish people knew about your job?
People often tell us they wish they had our job. Most of the time, what they mean is, they wish they had the chance to play with the fun floppy dogs and the cute newborn kittens. What people often don’t know is those interactions are only an extremely small fraction of what we do. Most people don’t know about the emergency calls that keep us from getting home on time at night or wake us up at 2am – or about the calls that affect us mentally, emotionally, and physically. So, I guess one thing I would want people to know is that while working in animal welfare is a beautiful endeavor, it can also be heavy on the heart at times.
I also want people to know that as an officer, one thing they can be sure of, is that we are doing our best and ask for your patience. There are often times that while we don’t agree with the way the laws are written, we do have to enforce them. We often have to put our emotions on the back burner to look at the facts at hand, which can be hard as an officer and even more complicated to explain to complainants when our hands are tied.
Tell us about an animal cruelty case you took on that you won’t forget.
While we have quite a few cases I hold close to my heart, the most touching one for me is the Featherhill Road case, which was a search warrant I executed in July of 2021 where we removed three horses in bad conditions. One unfortunately perished within the first 24 hours of removal, but the second two equines are living their best lives right now on a beautiful farm. This case means a lot to me because it not only took a large number of hardworking staff members to pull off, but it resulted in saving two lives who ultimately may have experienced a tragic outcome otherwise. Even though these horses were neglected, starved, and treated poorly by their owner, they still held so much love for humans and were truly thankful for their second chance at life. We were able to give that to them because of the work ARL does every day, and for that, I am grateful.
If you could cross one thing off your bucket list right now, what would it be?
Travel. Literally anywhere. See other countries and places I’ve never been before. No one works in animal welfare because of the money, we do it because our hearts are in it – Which usually leaves minimal opportunity to fulfill dreams of traveling the world. But maybe someday!
Is there anything else you would like to share with your community?
I want people to know how hard our department works to juggle the high volume of calls, on top of working nights of being on call and responding to the hard complaints. In our line of work, we often get more of the negative phone calls and aren’t always treated with respect. I also want the community to know that even though that is our day-to-day, we are always doing our best to put them and their animals first, even if they may not think so. We always act with good intentions and want the best for every animal we encounter. What we do is solely all about the animals, and it always will be.
Support our Animal Protection Department’s
lifesaving work on ARL’s day of giving, #ARLDraftDay.
As the primary provider of animal cruelty and humane investigations in Berks County, our community is relying on our Animal Protection Department right now to protect the voiceless. Help our Animal Protection Department continue to partner with our community by making a donation this Draft Day.
Want to learn more about the work of our Animal Protection Department? Check out our Day in the Life of our Animal Protection Department video below!
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