KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Cindy Earnshaw said it was her dream job to work as an Overland Park, Kan., Animal Control officer. But after nine years of exemplary job evaluations, Earnshaw was deemed unfit for duty. Earnshaw said it is because of her disability.

"I crawled my whole life to get there. When I got there, I was good and gave it 100 percent," Earnshaw told KMBC's Lara Moritz.

Earnshaw said she felt most comfortable in her uniform, driving her Animal Control truck and taking care of animals in Overland Park.

"I so loved my job, and I was so passionate about it, and was able to serve my citizens and my animals, which kind of compensated," Earnshaw said.

Earnshaw said the job compensated her for what she claims was constant bullying by her fellow Animal Control officers.

"I'm there to work, you know. All I got for that was torment and abuse and bullying. They articulated, 'You are purposely trying to make us look bad,'" Earnshaw said.

Moritz reported that Earnshaw suffers from Asperger's Syndrome. It is a social disorder that makes it difficult, almost impossible to engage in small talk. Earnshaw said her co-workers did not understand it, so they made fun of her and often excluded her.

"They are often perceived as odd, unusual, aloof, isolated and in situations where there's not adequate structure and supervision, they are often ridiculed, teased and harassed," Earnshaw's psychologist Dr. Doug Geenens said.

Earnshaw's disorder did not affect her job performance, Moritz reported.

In fact, out of 80,000 citizen calls she responded to in nine years, she received only one citizen complaint.

Moritz said she examined every single one of Earnshaw's job performance evaluations. All of them were above average and most of the time they were excellent, Moritz reported.

Earnshaw received 15 letters of commendation from two police chiefs in her nine years with police department.

In 2004, one of Earnshaw's superiors sent her an e-mail saying, "You've received more commendations and gifts from citizens this year than I've ever heard of someone receiving."

"I still did my job well every day, even when I was being tormented every day," Earnshaw said.

Earnshaw said that in staff meetings, her co-workers would dismiss her ideas, purposely making her feel inadequate.

"They would roll their eyes. They would laugh. They would make it clear that, 'See? Cindy's the only one that doesn't go along with the rest of us,'" Earnshaw said.

Earnshaw asked her superiors to stop the bullying. In a 2003 e-mail to her sargeant she writes, "I do not come to work to be yelled at, insulted, harassed, called names, disregarded, disrepected ... I do not request the affection of my co-workers, but I do demand they not be allowed to abuse me."

Earnshaw said her supervisors assured her that something would get done.

"It's quite devastating when you realize it doesn't matter how good you are, you're still going to lose out to the bullies," Earnshaw said.

In March 2006, her supervisor gave her a glowing performance evaluation and recommended a pay raise. In October 2006, a lieutenant colonel sent an e-mail to all of the Animal Control officers saying he expected them to "treat each other with dignity and respect."

But by this time, Earnshaw said the bullying had become so out of control that she worried for her safety.

"I had become physically afraid to come to work," Earnshaw said.

In November 2006, Earnshaw was asked to see the Police Department psychologist who stated that "Cindy's not capable of performing the essential duties of an ACO (Animal Control Officer) given the extensive history of problematic peer interactions ... Cindy's unlikely to benefit from further treatment in terms of job-related functioning as an Animal Control Officer."

"What's wrong, and the reason I'm not there, is because I can't take the bullying anymore. I can't take their negligence," Earnshaw said.

Earnshaw recently resigned from her position at the Overland Park Police Department. Moritz reported that Earnshaw has hired a lawyer and has contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is now investigating her claims of employment discrimination.

Overland Park city officials would not talk with Moritz on camera, but they did send a statement.

"The city has in place appropriate policies that follow state and federal law to deal effectively with issues related to disabilities and the city constantly follows those policies. The city is cooperating fully in the agency's investigations. The city is confident that when the agency's investigation is complete, the city's handling of this matter will be found to have been appropriate.

But for Earnshaw, not being able to do the job she loves, hurts her the most, Moritz reported.

"How do you call your mom and say you can't go back to work, but it's not because you did something wrong. People automatically think you did something wrong or this wouldn't be happening to you. That's how demoralized I was when I left there. They crushed the life out of me," Earnshaw said.