Midwest Animal Services was established in 2001 as a non-profit animal welfare organization, whose focus was on animal rescue and placement. It branched out to providing animal welfare training in 2002. Although it was originally established as a non-profit, MaSA became a Missouri- based Limited Liability Company in 2017 under executive director JT Taylor. The organization now provides training and consultation services throughout Missouri and the surrounding states.

 

JT Taylor, Executive Director

JT is a United States Air Force veteran, and has been a state, regionally and nationally certified Animal Control Officer, Animal Cruelty Investigator, Shelter Operator, Disaster Responder, and Animal Control Manager since 2001. He has more than 11 years of experience in traditional law enforcement and has been a certified training instructor since 1985. He has served as the Director of Animal Control for the City of Eldon; the Supervisory Special Investigator for Kansas City’s Special Investigation Unit; and was th Animal Control Manager for Jefferson County, Missouri. He was graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from Grantham University. JT has served on the Missouri Animal Control Association Board of Directors for many years, to include having been the Officer Certification Chairman and President of the Association. He served the National Animal Control Association as a member of the Advanced Investigation (Level IV) course development team and instructor. He has served as an instructor for the National Animal Control Association, the Missouri Animal Control Association, Animal Control Training Services and Midwest Animal Services Academy; and has been a guest lecturer for the Veterinary Technologies programs for Brown-Mackie College, Sanford Brown College and Jefferson College. He is currently an instructor with Animal Control and Care Academy (ACCA) and is the chief instructor for MaSA’s live classroom training and its online training platform acouniversity.com.

 

Administrative Staff

The administrative staff of MaSA includes Administrative Assistant Mylee Hanks, Director of Education Sharon Tausch, and Director of Communications and Information Technologies Janet Conner.

 

Cadre

All members of MaSA’s instructor corps are trained and experienced in classroom and field training environments.

 

Advisory Board

Members of the MaSA Advisory Board come from across the Midwest Region and the country. Most have years of experience in fields such as education and training, animal control field and shelter operations, law enforcement, disaster response, or management and supervision. The Advisory Board currently includes Sr ACO Michele Shiber, of Bergen County, NJ; Chief ACO (ret) Arron Bertera of Southgate, MI; Chief ACO (ret) Kathy Wallace, of North Kansas City, MO; Chief ACO (ret) Kristi Osborn, of Harrisonville, MO; CACO Wesley Haverstick, of Georgia; Dr Phillip Wagenknecht, DVM, of St Louis, MO; Animal Shelter Director Mark Kumpf, of Detroit, MI; and Senior ACO Beth Gillespie, of Blue Springs, MO.