Retired Calif. police detective now tracks down missing pets

SAN DIEGO — Kenneth Bettencourt used to search for missing people and investigate homicides.

These days, he’s the guy you may call if your dog runs away.

“I’ve always loved animals, and when I retired in ’95, my wife said, ‘You’ve got to find something else to do,’ ” the former police detective said.

Bettencourt, 78, formed Animal Rescue Shelter and Patrol in 2013, using the garage of his home in San Diego as a kennel to hold stray pets he found until they were reunited with their owners.

About six months ago, his nonprofit merged with the United States Service Command of America, a Lake Zurich, Ill.-based nonprofit that has focused mostly on disaster relief.

Under the new venture, Bettencourt has put together a canine rescue team that will be used to find people trapped in collapsed buildings and other emergency situations.

He also has added a new team that will consist of volunteers certified through training with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to help law enforcement during wildfires and other emergencies. Besides helping direct traffic and performing other duties, the team will try to corral any pets that may have fled and are in danger.

If successful, the Animal Rescue Ready Reserve could be replicated in other areas around the country, said Joseph Howe, of the U.S. Service Command of America.

Howe, impressed with Bettencourt’s mission, reached out to help him expand the animal rescue effort as a pilot program under his national group.

Bettencourt wears a uniform and goes on patrol in a pickup that sports an eyecatching logo with the silhouette of a horse, dog and cat with flames in the background.

The idea may sound quirky, but the timing could be right. California wildfires are becoming larger and more frequent, and there has been no official group that dispatches trained volunteers to rescue dogs and cats.

A few years ago, Bettencourt saw that need and thought he could fill it.

“I was thinking about what I did as a missing persons detective, and I said I could apply that to find missing pets,” he said.

Bettencourt had worked much of his career as a police officer in Oakland before deciding to finish his career in Gold Hill, Ore.

The town of about 1,000 turned out to have a serious problem, he learned. Far off the freeway but near the route drug runners use between Canada and Los Angeles, Gold Hill turned out to be an ideal place to dump bodies after deals went bad. A couple of bodies were discovered every other month, Bettencourt said, keeping the homicide detective busy.

Retiring in 1995, he came to San Diego and took a job working security for North County Transit. He then did some investigative work for defense attorneys, which he found disagreeable, before getting the idea to become his own version of “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.”

So far no team members have been deployed to help out in a disaster or emergency. In the meantime, he or another volunteer are out twice a week on patrols to help people find missing pets.

About four calls come in a week from people who find him on the internet or who are referred by animal care facilities.