Left to right: Mark Hutchison CC of Reno, Vanetta (Happi) Truan VP of Public Relations and Kevin Clark, Critter Control CEO. .

TRAVERSE CITY, Misch. — Critter Control franchisee Mark Hutchison of Reno, Nev. took home the Critter Control Franchisee of the Year award and vacation package at the company’s annual meeting held in Atlanta. The award is based on market scores, minimum operating standards compliance, year-over-year growth and corporate citizenship.

Hutchison was also recognized for ‘The Most Dangerous Critter Encounter’ when he got a call for a suspected raccoon under a house in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. After doing a crawl space inspection he discovered a 300-pound black bear that decided just then to wake up from his winter nap.

The Nevada Division of Wildlife was called to the scene and a bear biologist and game warden (accompanied by two Russian bear dogs)vcrawled back under the house and used rubber bullets to persuade the bear to leave. Total bear damage to home owners crawl space was over $10,000.  Mark was also instrumental in successfully campaigning against unrealistic trapping laws in Nevada.