Inspector of Animals

The Inspector of Animals inspects cattle and other farm animals for contagious disease and quarantines diseased animals; the early reports record the numbers of cattle, hogs and calves examined, quarantined and killed. In Billerica the office first appears as the Cattle Inspector: William H. Hutchins was inspecting cattle and swine for the town in 1894, when the state paid half the value of diseased cattle it ordered killed, and the town reports list the office under that name from 1895. From 1922 the selectmen appointed the inspector for one-year terms. The reports and budgets also call it Inspector of Animals (from the 1930s) or Animal Inspector. From 1953 the office was combined with that of Dog Officer, and the reports list a Dog Officer and Cattle Inspector (1954-1972) and then a Dog Officer and Animal Inspector, the town animal control officer, from 1974 to the present. The report for 2018 onward lists three Dog Officers and Animal Inspectors.

Assistant and C.E.T.A. dog officers, and Dog Officers before 1953 who did not hold the inspector post, are not included in the roster.

Sources: Billerica annual town reports 1895-2025 (lists of town officers, selectmen's appointments and reports of the Cattle Inspector and Dog Officer).