New Kane County animal control director promises teamwork

When Brett Youngsteadt was 3 years old, he told his mom he wanted to be a vegetarian. It turned out the toddler version of Youngsteadt didn't have a particular affinity for veggies. What he really wanted to do was work with animals.

On Tuesday, he took the next step toward satiating hunger by making his first public appearance as Kane County's new animal control director.

Youngsteadt said he's taking the first couple weeks on the job to meet animal control staff members, hear their ideas and incorporate the best of them into a long-range plan. His chief initial goals are improving the agency's relationships with local animal rescue programs and beefing up a dormant volunteer outreach.

Youngsteadt said getting volunteers involved will spread the word about the agency and the animals it has available.

“They have a bunch of applications on file,” Youngsteadt said. “They just haven't done anything with them. You get 10 volunteers to tell 10 friends and now you have 100 people who know about your facility.”

Youngsteadt said there is work to be done in re-establishing working relationships with animal rescue operations. That work is key because the rescues have expertise Kane County Animal Control lacks.

“What we can do is get animals to their resources and let them do a little bit of behavior training, trust training,” Youngsteadt said. “Some of these dogs come from situations where they've been roaming the streets for months. We need to get that trust re-established with people. It's going to help increase the release of live animals at this facility.”

Before all of that happens, Youngsteadt said he will work to create a team atmosphere at the shelter so everyone can buy into the mission with the same enthusiasm he has.

“I started an animal hospital at age 17,” Youngsteadt said. “So I have already been in the industry 17 years. I can't imagine going to work every day and not playing with an animal or seeing an animal. I love what I do. I can't imagine doing anything else in the world.”

Youngsteadt is the first permanent animal control director in more than two years. The previous leader of the agency, Robert Sauceda, resigned after being placed on administrative leave earlier this year. Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon said last week his staff still has an open criminal investigation involving Sauceda.