Animal Control Volunteers

Exactly how many criminals, parolees and ex-cons are working at Animal Control?

• Chicago is requiring more than 250 Animal Care volunteers to be fingerprinted, provide Social Security numbers and undergo criminal background checks in a crackdown that, some volunteers warn, could trigger a mass exodus of pivotal unpaid help.

  Human Resources spokesperson Connie Buscemi said criminal background checks have been "standard practice" for 110 volunteers in other city departments since "at least 2008."

  Somehow, the city's biggest group of volunteers -- 150 regulars and 100 part-timers at the Commission on Animal Care and Control -- slipped through the cracks.

• Sources said some volunteers are so livid about being fingerprinted and screened, they're planning to resign in protest, leaving the department's 68 full-time staffers in the lurch.

So if they have to submit to fingerprints and screening, they're going to be so pissed off that they're willing to send Fido and Fluffy to the gas chambers that much quicker?

They're unpaid volunteers - we really don't see a downside for Shortshanks. He'll either (A) get a whole new generation of dog walkers and cat tenders volunteering or (B) he'll close the entire operation and get a bunch of "no-kill" shelters to pick up the slack. Animal Care and Control is already patrolling the entire city with one truck most weekends and doing a damn poor job of it.