Wood County Dog Warden Jodi Harding with Star, a gray pitbull-mix.
J.D. Pooley | Sentinel-Tribune
Star, a gray pitbull-mix with a serious skin condition, was lucky when she was found running around the village of Luckey.
The stray dog was picked up by the Wood County Dog Shelter staff and, at least for the immediate future, is occupying the office of the Wood County dog warden.
Jodi Harding, who started the job in November, is a hands-on warden — literally. Throughout this interview, she petted Star until she purred while wagging her stubby tail, then settling onto a blanket for a nap, snoring contentedly.
“She needs some TLC,” Harding said. “She came in with a really bad skin infection. She wasn’t treated the greatest.”
Harding has 15 years in animal welfare experience,including the Lucas County shelter and Toledo Humane Society.
Star is not going home with her, Harding said adamantly. She has four rescue dog at home, which is in Maumee. They are two pitbulls, an Australian shepherd and a pug.
“Growing up, we always had rescue dogs, so it stuck with me,” said Harding, who grew up in Maumee and is a Maumee High School and University of Toledo graduate.
Her job is more than nursing strays back to health.
She has a staff of three full-time deputies and they enforce the laws that include no dogs running loose and dog licenses. They also handle dog bite investigations.
Last year, the shelter took in 310 dogs. So far this year, they have taken in 71 dogs. There were 89 adoptions last year; 153 dogs were reclaimed by their owners.
Harding also manages the network to get the strays to a new home. In 2021, there were 44 transfers, or dogs that came into the shelter and went to a rescue group.
There were four unadoptable dogs euthanized in 2021.
“We try everything we can, that’s a last resort for us,” Harding said.
They are required to euthanize dogs that are surrendered by their owners for that purpose.
“They’re either aggressive, or biting or they’re too sick, and we had 15 owner surrenders for euthanasia,” she said.
It’s the adoption stories and the rescue groups that keep her hopes up, especially after seeing a case like Star’s.
“I like to look at the after, and to the success story,” Harding said. “A dog like Star, obviously not treated very well, knowing that she’s going to have a good outcome, gets you through the bad days.”
Some of her goals in the new job include increasing the amount of dog licenses. There were 19,000 dogs licensed in Wood County in 2021.
“Ideally, I would like to have over 20,000,” Harding said.
The benefits to licensing a dog include immediate reunification with it, if the dog gets loose.
“If your dog is running loose and has the dog license on — which they should because that is the law — our deputies will take the dog back home for you. It doesn’t even have to enter our shelter,” Harding said.
“If the dog comes in here and is wearing a license, there are no redemption fees to get the dog back.”
She would also like to see more community involvement in the dog park, which is adjacent to the shelter on East Gypsy Lane Road. There are 62 current members of the park, which is an open, fenced space where dogs can run unleashed and socialize with others.
The shelter may also hold some micro-chip and rabies clinics in the near future, Harding said.
The shelter’s annual budget is $450,000.
At the time of this interview, earlier this month, there were eight dogs at the shelter, which has room for up to 45.
Harding’s college degree is in early childhood education.
“When I graduated, there were not a lot of teaching jobs available at that time,” Harding said. “My sister actually worked at the humane society and they were looking for an animal care worker.
“I went there and really never left the field.”
Harding did spend a few years as a dispatcher with the Maumee Police Department.
“You never really had the same day. There was always something going on,” she said. “I loved working with the officers.”
Harding also worked previously as operations manager for Lucas County Canine Care and Control, and operations manager for the Toledo Humane Society.
In her free time, she runs with the Dave’s Running Shop Group, which is based in Perrysburg.
“I started about 10 years ago, and it was just because somebody told me I couldn’t run a half (marathon), and I don’t take that very lightly,” Harding said. “And then I just stuck with it. I’m not fast at all, but it’s just fun. It’s a stress reliever.”
The previous Wood County dog warden, Andrew Snyder, accepted a position with the City of Bowling Green.
