Looks like there were 3 other heroes in addition to
the animal control officer:

At 9:30 a.m., Kern County sheriff's officials said, someone who had seen the alert stopped a deputy and reported seeing the suspect's vehicle on California 178 in the Walker Pass area, about 70 miles east of Bakersfield.

About the same time, a neighbor of Ratliff's called a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy to say he had seen Ratliff driving a Saturn matching the description of the car found at the crime scene.

Around 11:30 a.m., a Caltrans flagman working on a highway construction site was listening to the radio and heard the Amber alert. Moments later, he looked up and saw the Bronco pass by, a California Highway Patrol official said. He scraped the license number into a nearby patch of dirt and called CHP dispatch, the official said.

CHP officers, who were already stationed on California 178, began working their way westward. Kern County sheriff's deputies began searching from the east in a pincer movement that, they hoped, would trap the suspect.

"There's very few places to get away--it's a two-lane road through a rough and rugged area," said Kern County Sheriff's Cmdr. Christopher Davis.

Also taking part in the manhunt were five law enforcement helicopters and three airplanes. Three helicopters focused on the California 178 area as the hunt intensified.

About the same time, authorities said, a Kern County animal control officer spotted the Bronco on White Blanket Road, a dirt road that traverses the White Blanket Indian allotment off California 178.