Busy Beau: Animal Control Officer on the front lines of tick prevention

If Beau Payne’s telephone rang at 2 a.m. it’s unlikely he would respond to handle a situation unless circumstances were critical.

Mr. Payne, who was appointed Shelter Island’s Animal Control Officer by the Town Board in April, would more likely advise the caller to reach out to a private pest control service.

Working under the supervision of the Police Department, his major responsibilities could include corralling stray dogs and aiding sick or injured animals, but mostly working to put in place the town’s Deer & Tick Committee’s efforts to reduce tick-borne diseases. He has an annual salary of $55,000.

The Police Department gets many more calls about animal incidents now than it did before Mr. Payne was on the job, Chief Jim Read said, noting the reports have “skyrocketed.”

For several months a year, Mr. Payne is responsible for deployment and maintenance of the town’s 4-poster units — feeding stands that brush deer with a tickicide, permethrin. Currently, he’s spending two full days a week refilling corn in the units, replacing rollers and reapplying the tickicide. A good part of another day is spent receiving and storing corn at the highway barn for the units.

Much of Mr. Payne’s remaining time is spent doing data analysis on behalf of the Deer & Tick Committee. Not only is he tracking current numbers of the amount of corn being consumed, but he’s working to tally previous years’ statistics that include corn consumption and deer culled during the hunting season. And in the “deer damage” season, he will be hunting.

Deer damage hunting helps communities overrun with deer by allowing special licenses, also known as deer damage permits, issued by the New York State Department of Conservation, to hunt outside the regular hunting seasons. Those qualifying for the special licenses are individual farm owners, for example, or municipalities, which can then designate an agent to hunt.

The duties Mr. Payne performs doesn’t count the nights and weekends he attends neighborhood meetings to help with a public education on wildlife management processes. Nor does it account for other meetings sponsored by Suffolk County and other regional deer and tick groups, both to share what Shelter Island — a leader among municipalities in the war against tick-borne diseases — has learned from its efforts and to gather information from others.

He also finds time to oversee the distribution of deer meat to the public from the town freezer at the Recycling Center.

In the few months since Mr. Payne got the job, he’s steadily furnished information to the Deer & Tick Committee and drawn consistent praise from the committee and Supervisor Jim Dougherty.

“I knew Beau would be excellent out in the field, but I am also delighted with his analytical and administrative skills in the office,” Mr. Dougherty said. “He is working well with everyone and rapidly putting together an ongoing data basis which will be helpful to us in the future in making the decisions regarding the best way to combat this terrible disease menace.”