Longtime animal control officer retires

After 23 years of dealing with stray animals in Clovis, including a zebra, a camel and an ostrich-like emu, Clovis' animal control supervisor Marty Martinez has retired.

Martinez last week announced his retirement at age 59, ending a career of dealing with wayward pets and occasional misplaced wild animals that began in 1998.

Martinez said that while his retirement may have seemed sudden to some, "you can tell when it's time."

The time came some time before Monday, but on Monday he announced on Facebook, "I have decided to retire after 23 years as Animal Control Supervisor for the Clovis, New Mexico Police Department. I want to say thanks to the many officers and agencies that have given me support and advice over the years. Be safe and God bless!!"

On Wednesday, Martinez reminisced about his career as an animal control officer, and times like the roundup of a zebra, a camel and an emu shortly after he became an animal control officer.

"I got a call that there was a zebra and other animals wandering around on Remuda Drive," he said. "I responded, and sure enough, there was the zebra, a camel, an emu and two boxers on the street."

The exotic animals and the boxers had escaped from a home on the street, and, Martinez said, the owner and Martinez herded the animals back to the home, and closed the gate.

Other exotic animals Martinez encountered found themselves at the Hillcrest Park Zoo, where Martinez worked with zoo director Vince Romero either to give them a home at the zoo or heal wounds and return them to the wild.

Martinez said he brought Romero a 3-foot long alligator that the reptile's owner could no longer keep at his home, and the alligator is now a 6- or 7-foot-long zoo resident.

Romero said he remembers working with Martinez to rehabilitate a few "hawks and other birds of prey" that had been injured. Romero said he would treat and shelter the birds before returning them to the wild.

One of them was a Mississippi kite, Romero said, which he described as a falcon that spends summers in eastern New Mexico but migrates to South America for the winter.

Martinez also brought in a porcupine, named "Spike" that was a pet.

Then there was an opossum that the reporting party described as an "albino rat," he said, that was returned to the wild.

As an animal control officer, Martinez worked under the umbrella of the police department, and he was called out occasionally to deal with animals that might become involved in an arrest.

Once, he remembered, he had to control an angry pit bull during a raid while police checked the doghouse for drugs and contraband.

While securing the dog with an animal control noose, he said, a heavy metal part of the device swung around and hit his elbow.

"My arm went numb and I couldn't move it," he said. "I had to control this 90-pound dog with one arm, while other officers checked out the dog house."

He succeeded, he said. Feeling came back to the arm and he was able to keep the dog at bay until officers completed their inspection.

Martinez recalled that incident as one of his scariest, but his wife Anna said, "There were many times when he was called out that I was afraid for him."

Martinez said he got his best advice from police officers who told him early in his career: "Do not file charges unless you know you can convict."

He has repeated that advice to subordinates, and he followed it, he said.

In about 180 cases, he said, "I never lost in court."

Martinez said his best times as an animal control officer were watching animals go home with families he was sure would provide good homes.

His worst, he said, was when he had to euthanize them.

Officers must administer lethal injections themselves, he said, and be certified in dosages and delivery.

In animal control, he said, most of the difficulty involves people.

Of all the animals he pulled off Clovis streets, he said, only about 1% were licensed, but he said he spent many hours calming owners of wayward pets.

If an owner said their dog would not bite, he would ask, "Does it have teeth?"

He enjoyed dealing with children at the city's animal shelter, he said, and he kept a supply of suckers at the ready for the kids.

"But they had to ask a parent and promise to be good," he said.

Once, he said, he dealt with a young boy who was crying.

"He had just learned that his dad had been reassigned" in the U.S. Air Force and he was going to have to move away.

Martinez said he and the boy played with a little wooden airplane for a while, and when the boy had to leave, he told Martinez to keep the airplane.

About 20 years later, while sitting in his office, Martinez said, "I hear this deep voice saying, 'I see you kept my airplane.'"

That same little boy had returned, now in uniform, following in his dad's footsteps in the Air Force.

Martinez said he always kept mementos like the boy's airplane on a shelf in his office, and he still has the airplane. He held it as he told the story.

Martinez said his plans for retirement start with "a lot of little things" he has wanted to get done around his home and continuing with volunteer activities in his church and the community.

He and Anna, he said, are also planning occasional trips out of town to visit relatives in Albuquerque and in west Texas.

With COVID-19 restrictions, he said, visits to out-of-town family have been long postponed.

Even as he continues with church and community projects in retirement, he said, he will follow advice he learned from John Madden, coach of the Los Angeles Raiders football team, and that he has applied to his working life: "Be on time, pay attention and do your job."