A decade ago the city employed four animal control officers, but now Ehart and Ronda Burgess answer animal complaints with some help from patrol officers when they are able.
"But dog complaints have a low priority for officers," Ehart said.
Last year the two officers turned over 947 dogs to the Calhoun County Animal Center at 165 S. Union St., according to the director, Sindy Buford. By Friday 890 dogs had been taken to the shelter this year. Most were strays, although a small number were surrendered by their owners.
"It is happening enough that we have to modify our training and have run everyone through the training," he said. "We want to make sure the citizens are protected and the officers are covered."
On Friday, Burgess and Ehart were answering calls of stray and loose dogs.
As she retreated from the two pit bulls that had run from a yard, the woman stumbled over a curb and fell, hitting her head on the pavement. She went to Bronson Battle Creek where a doctor used staples to close the wound on her head.
When Battle Creek police approached the owner, he insisted his dogs did not escape from the yard and then began to yell obscenities at the officer, who cited him for having a vicious dog.
The incident of dogs loose on Battle Creek streets is a growing trend, according to Animal Control officers and police, who said loose and stray dogs, some vicious, are a nuisance and a danger.
"We are just running from call to call and we can't be proactive," said Mike Ehart, one of two Battle Creek Police Department Animal Control officers working in the city and Bedford Township. "I just bet we have 150,000 dogs in the city we have to deal with."
Cal Rousch called a dispatcher because he had confined a Pit Bull in the garage at his home at on North Washington Avenue and because he frequently has dogs running through his yard. He has called animal control three or four times in the last three years because he captured a stray dog which would not leave his property, he said.
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