AUBURN – The Twin Cities will make do with one animal control officer, for now.

Bentley Rathbun, Auburn’s animal control officer, resigned last week. He declined to renew his annual contract in an Aug. 28 letter, according to Acting Police Chief Phil Crowell.

Lewiston Animal Control Officer Wendell Strout will handle animal complaints in both cities while Auburn officials decide whether they will hire a replacement.

It shouldn’t affect service in either city, Crowell said.

“We are talking about combining that position with Lewiston,” Crowell said. “Auburn’s call volume for animal complaints really does not equal having a full-time officer. Whether that means we need to share someone or hire someone part-time, those are things we are looking at.”

Strout works full-time in Lewiston and part-time as the animal control officer in Turner, Leeds, Wales and Greene.

He began taking Auburn calls last week.

One of his first calls under the new arrangement was to the Wal-Mart parking lot to collect a dog that bit a woman Tuesday afternoon.

“I’m familiar with this dog, because I’ve had complaints that it was running at large before,” Strout said.

Strout said the owner, Buddy Cooper of Leeds, was not charged in the incident, although the dog was not licensed and was not up on his rabies shots. The animal, a male Rottweiler-Labrador mix, was placed in a 10-day quarantine to watch for signs of rabies or other illness.

The woman, Theresa Winslow of Auburn, was taken to Central Maine Medical Center and treated for the dog bite and swelling.

“It certainly was not the woman’s fault, but I think we’re dealing with a dog that thought it was protecting its property,” Strout said.

Crowell said Tuesday’s incident is the model for how calls will be handled in the future.

“Most the animal calls we get are not emergencies, and those will be handled by our police,” Crowell said. “But when there is an emergency call, that’s when we’ll call in Wendell.”

Crowell said Rathbun responded to 100 animal control calls last month.

“But most of them were barking dog complaints or raccoons in the trash,” he said. Auburn police will respond to those calls now.

“But when you talk about high-priority calls, there were only about 10 of them,” he said. “We have a good backup in place to handle that now and we’ll talk over the next few weeks to see where we want to go.”