‘Doc Anthony,’ friend of people but foe of crows

CEDAR RAPIDS - For 11 years, from 1982 to 1993, Cedar Rapids had its very own city veterinarian on the payroll.

Russell Anthony, who had his own veterinary clinic called Anthony Animal Hospital on A Avenue NE, was the one and only person to apply for the position when it was created in May 1982 to oversee the animal shelter and provide services for the Bever Park Zoo, which had an array of animals.

'He was always smiling, very friendly; he cared a lot about everybody,” said David Graeff, a local veterinarian. 'He always had a waiting room full of people. He was always really good with people and with animals, very tender, soft and gentle hands and a big heart with animals.”

Graeff worked under Anthony, who died on Jan. 4 at age 93, and took over the clinic when Anthony retired. Graeff eventually moved the business and renamed it to Animal Care Hospital, which is now at 1146 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE.

Mark Stoffer Hunter, historian at The History Center, said many will remember Anthony for his service in the Shriner's organization, which was memorialized on a giant billboard over his business at 801 A Ave. NE. It was hard to miss.

'Not only was he famous for his veterinary skills, there was a giant billboard of him wearing a Shriner's hat, for all he'd done for the organization,” said Stoffer Hunter, who added that Anthony had also been his family veterinarian.

Anthony, who was born on a farm in Providence, Ill., in 1923 and served as turret gunner on a B-26 bomber in the Army Air Corps, gained the most attention for his public service.

Under then-Mayor Don Canney, the city established the part-time position of city veterinarian to 'lend a more professional approach to the animal shelter; provide better sanitary conditions; satisfy state requirements; allow inoculations to be done ‘in house' with the city taking quotes on serum; and treatment of injured animals at the shelter,” The Gazette reported in its May 12, 1982, edition.

Over time, the office came under scrutiny with citizens probing the size of the budget, travel expenses and euthanasia practices, according to archives of The Gazette.

Amid the uproar, Anthony retired and the position was eliminated in 1993. The city reorganized animal services and took out the licensed veterinarian requirement from the job description for head of animal control.

Cedar Rapids now out sources veterinarian services when needed and doesn't have a veterinarian on staff, said Gail Loskill, a spokeswoman for the parks and recreation department.

It's not clear if the city had a veterinarian on staff before or after Anthony because human resource records were destroyed in the 2008 flood, she said.

A lasting contribution of Anthony, who after leaving city ranks became a Midwest veterinary consultant for Avid Microchip Co., appears to be his strategy for dealing with crow infestations in city parks, particularly Greene Square.

He credited a late friend for the initiative he introduced in 1991: placing boards with two dead birds nailed on - one feet up, the other feet down - high in trees where crows roosted.

'These crows are smart,” Anthony told The Gazette in 2006. 'So I wanted the crows to know I had shot some of them in that particular tree. I wanted them to think, `Oh, no, we better not go down there because we could end up on that board.'”

Some, such as Dale Todd, the city's parks commissioner from 1998 to 2002, were skeptical when first learning of the controversial brainchild of 'Doc Anthony.”

'The next day after we put them in, I got a call from the Czech Cemetery saying the crows are all over here now,” Todd recalled. 'I'm a firm believe they work.”

The practice remains in the toolbox and is deployed when the city faces problems of crows in Greene Square, Loskill said.

l Comments: (319) 339-3177; brian.morelli@thegazette.com