Jack Russell Story

Jack’s parents swear that they didn’t name him after a dog. Nobody believes them. From an early age, Jack always enjoyed the outdoors and wildlife. He remembers getting in trouble for using his Dad’s toolbox as a frog Terrarium when he was about 5. He loves the outdoors for all kinds of exploration, adventure, and survival hobbies. Enough for it to become a lifelong career. Whenever he was given the choice of a subject to report on in school, he would pick something involving the outdoors and wildlife. Subjects like: What did Lewis and Clark eat on their cross-continental exploration? How do wildlife populations grow and shrink from environmental stimuli? And many others.



On weekends and holidays in junior high and high school, Jack would take jobs trapping weasels for the local chicken farms or helping release pheasants for the local hunting club. At 16, he volunteered for the local fire department. In 1995, he left home to attend Washington State University in Pullman, WA. He was a cougar and got to study them as part of his Natural Resource Sciences: Wildlife Biology program. During summer breaks, he worked on a wildlife habitat protection crew for the US Forest Service in Ukiah, Oregon, fighting forest fires.


After Earning his Baccalaureate in 1999, and with $12,000 in student debt, he joined the Army to pay off his loans and get some post-graduate experience. As a Military Police Specialist in Alaska, he got to do duty as a Game Warden for Fort Wainwright and Fort Greely. After only two years in Alaska, in September 2001, after the 9-11 attacks, the position of Game Warden for Military Personnel was canceled and made into a civilian position to free up more soldiers for the war in Afghanistan. Jack was sent to Officer Candidate School at Ft Benning, Georgia, and promoted to Lieutenant. He served 5 years on Active duty, including a tour to Iraq.


When he left active duty in the Army, he pursued jobs in civil service, including the Washington State Dept of Fish and Wildlife, the WA State Parks, The National Park Service, and a few others. However, after experience in the Army and Forest Service, he had no more desire to be in another bureaucracy, so he signed a franchise agreement with a National Wildlife Damage Management company. While building that business, he also worked installing satellite dishes for DirecTV and a few other odd jobs. DirecTV was a good experience for maximizing time when servicing multiple houses in one day out of a truck equipped with ladders and tools. 

Early Beginnings

Jack got his first Nuisance Wildlife Client in September of 2005 and has been hard at it ever since. In 2007, as a result of the “Surge,” he was briefly called back to service in the Army as a weekend warrior reservist. It was convenient as also in 2007, the Chehalis basin flood decimated a large part of the animal population in his core service area, so work was slow. During his reserve service, he was promoted again to the rank of Captain.


During his time in the National Franchise, growth was a requirement, and he strove to grow the business, expanding his geographical territory to cover most of Western Washington State and having 6 full-time employees and 2-part timers. However, while requiring growth, the National Franchise also provided no support for employee management creating a disaster, most notably because Jack spent more time in the office managing employees and paperwork than personally interacting with Clients where his animal expertise was needed.


In 2012, Jack’s financial situation was so dire that he was forced to lay off all his employees and return to a one-man operation, violating his Franchise contract. So he began preparing to leave the Franchise.

Jack officially began operating Jack Russell Wildlife Control as an independent operation in 2014.

A big THANK YOU to Jack’s referral sources and past clients for their support and continued word of mouth. At the same time, he reorganized the business change from Franchisee to an independent operator.


Jack focused on perfecting techniques for the first couple of years as an independent operator. The Franchise focuses on Animal trapping and other population control techniques. Still, Jack had learned that while those methods would sometimes temporarily deter the animals, solving the problem was ultimately about eliminating potential nesting areas inside structures. So Jack moved away from the franchise model and focused on identifying problems with structures and landscaping that lead to animal infestations and fixing those issues for a permanent solution. He contracted a few temporary staffing helpers when needed but avoided hiring full-time employees. One of those, Tommy, would return later to be a full-time employee and critical company member.


In 2017, Jack was ready to hire full-timers again, but his first several applicants didn’t want to make a career of the work or have the passion for the animals and home repair needed to perform the job well. Struggling to find a way to encourage his employees to stick around and commit to the work, Jack reorganized the company from a Sole Proprietorship to an Employee-owned S-Corporation in 2020. One Employee, Cameron, stayed on board for the transition, and Richard and Jonette were hired in mid-2020 to help kick-start the corporation. Tommy returned in late 2020, and Jonathan was hired to help in early 2022.


Since then, Jack Russell has grown to 5 full-time employees and 2 part-timers and opened a new office in Astoria, Oregon. We are currently hiring Apprentices at both office locations. Please email jackrussell@animalproblem.com to apply.

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