Swampscott’s animal control officer leaves the town to help animals across the state

SWAMPSCOTT — While scrolling through photos of different animals he’s rescued Friday afternoon, Daniel Proulx stopped on a photo of a wounded hawk he saved in Needham, an hour away from his home in Marblehead, and shook his head.

“So many hawks and owls are getting weak from the rats they’re eating,” Proulx said, explaining that hawks and owls will eat rats that have ingested rat poison, which endangers the birds even more if they’re injured. “I will drop anything and everything for a hawk and owl call.”