By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
There’s a new agent in town. Though Tami Rike may not be swaggering around in a 10-gallon hat scraping her spurs against dusty floorboards, she is certainly taking to her new role quickly.
Rike is replacing Angie Chandler as a humane agent at the Humane Society Serving Crawford County. Chandler left the Humane Society to take a position with the Crawford County Commissioners.
“Tami will have some big shoes to fill but we’re confident she will continue the fantastic progress and reputation Angie brought to the office,” said Victoria Carmean, the Director for the Humane Society Serving Crawford County.
Rike has worked at the Humane Society for over a year now as a shelter assistant. She said that before that she had been a stay-at-home mom. When her father-in-law passed away, Rike and her husband decided to move back to Bucyrus, his hometown.
“I wanted something else to do,” said Rike. She had animals all her life and thought working with the Humane Society would be a great fit.
Rike completed her training at the Ohio Peace Officers Training Acedemy and was sworn in on Aug. 31.
“I’ve enjoyed the investigations,” Rike said of her new experiences. “I enjoy learning about and making things right.”
Part of making things right includes educating people another part of the job that Rike said she really enjoys.
Rike has been thrown right into the thick of things since she was sworn in. She said that she recently had to remove small dogs from a home because they were not being fed properly.
“I know I’ll handle that fine,” Rike said about the serious cases like hoarding. “The hard part is going back and seeing the people have animals again.”