TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

This story was originally published Aug. 13, 2006.

Jennifer McDougle will start her new job as Kern County's first staff veterinarian on Sept. 11.

The Bakersfield native, trained in Dublin, Ireland, will fill a critical new job that animal advocates, county officials and McDougle all hope will improve the lives of the tens of thousands of lost and abandoned animals in Kern County.

"There's some good I can do. There's definitely an opportunity to see a reduction in overpopulation, and the euthanization rate in the county can be decreased," McDougle said.

Kern County Animal Control has been under fire for two years, and has launched an effort to change how it does business -- working more closely with rescue groups, fixing health concerns at county shelters and getting more training for shelter staff.

But hiring McDougle may be the biggest step the county has taken yet, said Animal Control chief Denise Haynes.

"We're at ground level. We are embarking on a whole new journey," she said.

Having an on-site vet will change how animals are given health care, and legally required spaying and neutering operations are done by the county, she said.

And that simple fact cuts right at the heart of some of Kern County's major animal problems.

Patricia Lock, a Frazier Park woman who sued the county over problems at the shelter, said a dedicated county vet is "absolutely critical" to improving the animals' care.

The shelter has struggled to fight waves of disease, and have only transported the most injured and ill animals to the private veterinarians that have offered care in the past, Lock said.

McDougle said she knows what she's getting into.

"Being a local I know the situation is crying out for something to change," she said.

Kern County's rural culture has burdened the county with a huge animal overpopulation problem.

The county shelter on South Mount Vernon Avenue processed 24,276 animals in the 2005-2006 fiscal year. Of those animals, 16,904 were put down with lethal injections -- 69.6 percent.

That's a shocking number, but already an improvement over the previous year, when the county took in 1,154 fewer animals and killed 1,267 more.

McDougle, 32, will join recently hired veterinary technician Laurie Beaver to form the county's first animal medical unit, operating out of a mobile surgery van until the county can find money for a permanent building.

McDougle said she became interested in shelter medicine while she studied in Dublin and practiced in Wales, in western Great Britain.

Europe has a more organized, low-cost and effective animal control system than the United States, she said.

McDougle hopes to bring that back to Bakersfield, but said it won't be an easy or a short road.

Haynes agrees.

"Even though we have our sights set on the stars, we have to take this incrementally," Haynes said. "We want to go from nothing to everything right now, and have it be super-fantastic."