Page 32 - May/June 2019 W.C.T. Magazine

30nWCT
Back in about 1991, when I got my NWCO license, there had been 289 licenses issued
in New York State. Today, there have been over 2,500, maybe more by now. That doesn’t mean that there are that many working Wildlife Control Operators actually in business out there. Some have passed away. Others have dropped out and some just maintain a license for their own reasons. Of those who are active, some are part-time and some are full time Operators. This is true for nearly every state with licensed Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators (NWCOs). Now, when I was first getting into the NWCO business in earnest, I was only part- time working with a close friend who was a full-time NWCO. I had a full-time job that took precedence
thiS and that
by Gordon Betts
and worked my days off as a NWCO. We were both active in the state association and attended most of the meetings and seminars along with some seminars in other states as my mentor gave several talks over the years. During that time I was, or felt that I was, lower class because I was a part-timer. I had three different degrees for education, I had lifelong trapping (fur) experience. I knew wildlife, but because I was “part-time,” I was looked down on. I was seen as taking work away from the full-time people that were making a living at it. They also didn’t think that I knew what I was doing as far as NWCO work was concerned and they were partially correct. Being a NWCO is completely different from fur trapping. I now admit to the latter,
but I was a licensed NWCO and as a part-timer I/we/they/had/have a place.
There are now at least eight full- time individuals making their living, or the majority of their income, from being a NWCO in the area I started in. That’s not counting the bug guys that try to cross over and they are all able to charge twice what I can get in my present area, maybe even more than twice. So the question is, was I as a part-timer really that much of a threat way back then? I think not.
Today I am in a different area of the state. I am full-time with nuisance wildlife control as a second career having retired from my first career after many years. I am now a registered business and carry all of the insurances.
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