Being an animal control officer is a busy job, but Paul Charbonneau wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

Charbonneau, now 47, was born and raised in Kalispell, graduating from Flathead High School in 1984. He then worked at Blake’s Office Supply for more than a decade before working at a boat dealership.

But he also had a second job starting in 1989, a volunteer position as part of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Posse.

“It kind of intrigued me, so I got involved,” Charbonneau said. “At the time, Pat Wicks, who is a brother of retired Sergeant Richard Wicks from Columbia Falls, he was interested in it too so we both joined together.”

In addition to receiving training, he said he really enjoyed the contact he had with the community by working such events as the Northwest Montana Fair and the Creston Auction.

“We even had instances where there were a couple of homicides and we secured the crime scenes until detectives arrives, secured several fires until an arson team showed up,” he said. “It was just a lot of fun, we received a lot of good training.”

Charbonneau said he was on the posse’s board of directors and held every position with the organization except treasurer.

In fact, he really wanted to be a deputy, but didn’t make the cut when a position opened up. But in 2002, the animal control position became available.

“I applied, got the job, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” he said.

During his first several years, the animal control officers worked out of the Flathead County Animal Shelter. When the officers weren’t out responding to calls, they were at the shelter cleaning kennels and feeding animals.

But about seven years ago, that entire system was changed when then-Sheriff Mike Meehan brought the animal control officers directly under the control of the sheriff’s office.

“It took a couple years, but the job definitely improved for us in the way that we could handle calls and provide service to the community,” Charbonneau said. “We all have vehicles just like the deputies, we have trucks, we have the MDTs which are the computers in our trucks. Most people, I’m sure, have noticed that we’re armed, both with handguns and shotguns.”

Along with the improved resources, the officers also began receiving the same training as deputies and had to pass the same qualifications testing and meet the same standards, including for firearms, that are required for deputies.

“The sheriff has also, in the last several years, brought training to us from out of state,” he said. “Three of us have been through the national animal cruelty investigation school which is put on by the University of Missouri, so we’re working on our national certifications.”

Charbonneau’s favorite part of his job is the variety of calls he responds to each day.

“It’s different every day, you never know what you’re going to get when you start your shift throughout the day,” he said. “I honestly love working with people. I like trying to help resolve conflicts between neighbors, and of course helping the animals out, especially in cruelty cases.”

While he estimated only about 3 percent of all reports of animal cruelty are valid, Charbonneau was involved in handling one of the largest cruelty cases that ever occurred in the Flathead Valley when, in December 2010, he responded to the snowed-in campers of Cheryl and Edwin Criswell off a power line cut-in and removed roughly 116 cats as well as a handful of other animals.

Four years earlier 400 cats had been seized from the couple in Idaho and they were convicted of misdemeanor charges and given suspended sentences.

The couple were eventually convicted in Flathead District Court of felony aggravated cruelty to animals with Cheryl given a six-year deferred sentence and Edwin receiving a two-year deferred sentence before violating the conditions of the sentence and being sent to the Montana State Prison for two years.

Of the cats Charbonneau brought out of the campers, he said nearly all of them were brought back to health, with only a couple having to be euthanized. Some of the cats were kept by the dozens of volunteers who stepped up to help after the cats’ rescue, some were taken by the humane society, and 72 were later put up for adoption by the county animal shelter.

“It’s a lot of work when you get somebody out and you bring them up on cruelty charges, but it brings a lot of satisfaction from bringing an animal back from, really, near death, and then they make it. That’s probably the best part of the job.”

Charbonneau plans to continue working as an animal control officer until he can retire in 13 years.

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.