The Oceana County Department of Animal Control is under the supervision of the County Administrator's office. Our general responsibilities include dealing with cases of animal cruelty, abandonment, and animals running at large. Although we are out in the community a great deal, much of our time is spent caring for, and in many unfortunate cases, euthanizing the animals that are brought into the shelter.

Animal Control Staff

Currently, we have only two county employees who work within the Department of Animal Control. Both are highly qualified and caring individuals.

• Terri Troupe, Director - With a degree in Criminal Justice, Terri has been a state certified animal control officer for 15 years. She joined the Oceana County Animal Control Department in January of 2008 after serving on the staff of the Marquette Humane Society.

• Mike Nielsen, Animal Control Officer - Mike is a state certified animal control officer and has served in Oceana County for the last 9 years.

Oceana County Animal Shelter

Located on Baseline Road near the airport in Shelby, our current animal shelter facility contains only 9 dog kennels and 4 cat kennels. We are thankful for this facility, but with so few kennels and so little space, we are limited as to how many animals we can care for at the shelter at one time.

Because of our limited space, the life-span of most animals at the shelter is only 4 to 7 days before they are euthanized, if not adopted. A few fortunate pets are fostered out to be cared for by volunteer foster families for limited time periods, but even some of these return and end up being terminated. Expansion of our facility (see below) would allow us to house more animals for a longer time period, helping to reduce our euthanasia rate and increase the animals' chance of adoption.