Early Easter morning a motorist called police to report having hit a horse on Auburn Road. The injured horse ran off and wasn’t found until that afternoon. When Belinda Lewis, the Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control director, got there, she didn’t like what she saw: a frightened and critically wounded horse awkwardly trapped in a hedge row.

“The first thing I said when I arrived on the scene was, ‘Be careful!’ I could see it was a dangerous situation, and I didn’t want anyone getting hurt,” Lewis said.

The horse had landed on its neck, cutting off its air supply. Lewis knew if the horse wasn’t moved, it would slowly and painfully suffocate. Rescuers used tow ropes to flip the horse onto its sternum to open its airway. It wasn’t easy, and Lewis admits it very likely didn’t look pretty to media crews.

Lewis was right about the gravity and danger of the situation. The horse was too badly injured to save. A veterinarian had to euthanize the horse on site. And one of the rescuers was injured: Lewis’ left hand got caught when they flipped the horse. She needed emergency surgery, and two pins were inserted into her broken finger to repair the damage.

“She’s not afraid to be hands-on, even if it means breaking a finger to do it,” joked Dot Brandenberger, a mayoral appointee to the Animal Care & Control Commission, which oversees the agency. “(Lewis) does her job and she does a really good job, but she doesn’t blow her own horn.”

That is typical of the effort Lewis gives to running a city department that affects nearly every resident at one time or another.

A difficult job

The horse was the second of three horses abandoned in the area within an 11-day period.

“We are seeing more neglect and more failure to provide for horses across the country,” Lewis said. “I don’t want to set a precedent of this being seen as a reasonable option for people. There are alternatives if someone needs to give up a horse. Abandonment is not an option.”

Though the city’s animal care department is best known for picking up stray animals and handling the adoption of dogs and cats, the horses are revealing examples of the extraordinary situations Animal Care & Control routinely faces. Leading the governmental organization tasked with both ensuring public safety and animal welfare is demanding, and Lewis is lauded for doing it exceedingly well.

“Belinda is really an authority – not only nationally, but internationally recognized – on animal Care & Control,” said Fort Wayne Police Chief Rusty York, Lewis’ boss. “She’s very conscientious, self motivated and continually strives for perfection in her area.”

York said he never has to ask her questions because she always gives him every piece of information he needs, often before he even knows there is an issue.

“Belinda’s department really is an example of best practices,” he said.

As a teen living in the suburbs of Chicago, Lewis worked as a vet tech at a veterinary clinic, work she continued until she graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in biology and biochemistry. She has worked in the animal welfare profession for more than 28 years and has been director of animal control in Fort Wayne since January 1988. Before coming to Fort Wayne, Lewis worked for the Huron Humane Society in northeastern Michigan, then served as the director of the Evansville Animal Care & Control.

Lewis, 51, also is a Fort Wayne Police Academy graduate and has a master’s degree in business management from Indiana Wesleyan University. She sits on the American Humane Association Animal Welfare Committee and formerly served on the Humane Society of the United States National Companion Animal Advisory Group.

Animal control expert

“I don’t think Fort Wayne realizes how lucky we are to have her. But she is real low-key about it, and that’s just one of the things I appreciate about her,” said Brandenberger, who has served on the animal control commission for about five years.

Brandenberger has also worked as a shelter volunteer for at least 11 years and has seen the success of Animal Care’s volunteer program, which has received national praise from the Humane Society of the United States for its effectiveness in recruiting qualified volunteers and fundraising.

“You see so many people out there volunteering,” York said. “Due to Belinda’s leadership, they do such a good job of reaching out and giving people an opportunity to help animals.”

Lewis’ department budget for 2011 is $2.6 million. Revenue comes from property tax dollars, adoption and pet license fees, and donations. The department also has three contracts to provide shelter, bite quarantine and investigation and emergency backup services for Allen County.

Lewis has received accolades for her innovative and effective strategy to combat animal hoarding. She was a leader in recognizing the need to treat hoarding – keeping so many animals that living conditions are not only unhealthy but also a danger to others – as a mental illness. She advocates a joint approach involving the health department, neighborhood code, mental health organizations, adult protective services, child protective services, police and animal control as the most effective way of dealing with hoarding cases. Lewis was one of 14 experts at a 2004 Hoarding Animal Research Consortium.

In February, a house on the west side of Fort Wayne was condemned and animal control officers found 16 live cats, three dead cats and one opossum. The floors were so thickly covered with feces that officers sank with each footstep. And the cats were so sick they had to be euthanized.

Brandenberger also points to Animal Control’s night depository as a procedure that serves as a national example. Residents who come across stray animals or owners who can no longer care for their animal can safely and responsibly drop off an animal at the shelter any time of day or night without leaving their name.

“She’s very innovative,” Brandenberger said. “She’s always on the cutting edge. Yet she makes changes carefully. We don’t just go in and change things without careful reasoning and research.”

Criticism

However, for as much acclaim as Lewis receives, she also faces plenty of criticism. Some critics believe the agency’s stringent adoption policies discourage rather than encourage pet adoption.

“When I first came here, I called us the adoption police,” Lewis said. She has worked to make pet adoption easier but knows the misperception still exists.

The most difficult part of the job is that the shelter often must euthanize animals.

“This is an extremely emotional profession,” Lewis said. “We euthanize animals. Being in a profession like this can be very trying. I’m able to isolate the successes and I have to let go of other things. If I let every euthanasia go home with me at night, I wouldn’t be able to continue in this profession.”

The shelter’s staff too often has to deal with the worst of humanity, the people who mistreat animals or don’t care about them.

After news reports about a Feb. 17 incident where a severely neglected dog and a child were found during a drug raid, many people called the shelter wanting to help the dog. The Journal Gazette received several letters to the editor from people outraged that it appeared that Chico, the Chihuahua rescued by Animal Control, was receiving more concern than the 2-year-old girl found in the drug den.

The child was taken into protective care, but privacy issues prevented the public from learning more about the help she was receiving. Chico, who was dehydrated, malnourished, had a low body temperature and was lucky to survive, was later adopted by a Brock Williams, one of the Allen County Sheriff’s Department officers involved in the raid.

“It’s crucial for the emotional well-being of our staff. Every once in a while to you have to have a success story. Chico was a good example of that,” Lewis said.

Money donated to the agency’s Angel Fund covered the extra costs of Chico’s care. The fund was created to help animals with exceptional circumstances make it into the adoption program.

“It pays for something beyond the norm but that taxpayer shouldn’t have to pay for,” Lewis said.

Useful pastime

The walls of Lewis’ office display bold wildlife photos she took that look as if they were ripped from the pages of National Geographic. To recharge Lewis likes to go out with her camera, her husband and her dog.

But even her hobby is put to use helping animals. She and her husband, Matt Lewis, a detective with the FWPD, teach a seminar on using photography for forensic crime scene investigation in animal cruelty cases. They have taught at the University of Florida and in New Zealand.

“We joke that she’s like Annie Oakley. She just jumps in and gets it done,” said Peggy Bender, spokeswoman and education specialist for Animal Care. “She’s very skilled, and that’s not something you always find with department directors. They have the office skills but may not be skilled out in the field. And she can just about do it all.”

Bender has worked at the shelter for 26 years and said the two have a “retirement pact” because she doesn’t want to have to break in a new director when Lewis retires.

“If I ever get used to it,” Lewis said, “it’s time for me to quit.”