Animal Cruelty/Humane Investigations - Fiction Or Effective?

        A prominent, well funded animal organization presented itself as the answer to animal cruelty. Call 911 or us, they informed the public, even though the police rarely respond correctly to 911 calls regarding dogfighting and animal cruelty, and even though the organization is incapable of properly responding to animal cruelty. Meanwhile, the head of the organization, many of their staff, board members and others (including other animal organizations) were informed of the following: 1. The organization failed to advocate for a proper police response police to animal cruelty and dog fighting calls. It was already documented that calling 911 was useless unless the police response changed. 2. The organization's humane investigations were ineffective and often harmful, and frequently amounted to nothing more then opportunities for dog fighters and animal abusers to move their animals elsewhere. ( Also, humane investigators that are off duty or retired law enforcement may look good on paper, but they are as ineffective and harmful as other humane investigators.) 3. By embarking on their campaign to present themselves as the go to place regarding animal cruelty, they were harming animals, not only by their ineffective, often harmful investigations, but by being the enablers that allow police to ignore, with few exceptions, animal cruelty and dog fighting calls, including those made to 911.

         Giving the public the impression that an organization is the answer to animal cruelty can be very lucrative. Donors are quick to send in money, never paying attention to efficacy. 

         To this day, animal cruelty and dog fighting are some of the least enforced crimes because of the lack of an appropriate police response and because of the exploitative, ineffective and often harmful response by many animal organizations.

         The organization's head humane investigator remarked that he had conducted thousands of animal cruelty or humane investigations, as though it was a great accomplishment. He was then asked, of the thousands of investigations, how many resulted in animals recovered? How many resulted in people getting arrested? He got angry, refused to answer and stormed away. Humane investigations are about showmanship, with rarely a constructive outcome like the arrest of an animal abuser or the confiscation of the abuser's animals. Plenty are the times that animal abusers and dogfighters move their animals to another location after being paid a visit by a humane investigator.

          A number of reporters were asked, even begged, to look into the results of these humane investigations, along with an examination of the police response to animal cruelty and dog fighting calls. The dynamic of a poor police response and an exploitative response by animal organizations ensures animal abusers and dogfighters prevail. 

         The response by reporters and others was a wall of indifference and lack of concern. Animal cruelty and dog fighting are crimes where the victims cannot articulate the ineffective and harmful actions of those that claim to speak on their behalf.
         A number of animal organizations spend millions of dollars on their so called animal abuse/humane investigations. It is squandered money that brings them fortunes in donations, but that does great harm to animals. No one is willing to look objectively at the results of their investigations.
         And so continues the poor police response to animal cruelty, with few exceptions (token police teams, whether fielded by a police department or by an animal organization, are not the exception. Rather, they are ineffective public relations ploys that allow the rest of law enforcement to continue ignoring these crimes). And so continues the exploitation of animal cruelty by a number of animal organizations. All of this at the expense of animals and the public well being.
        The time is long past due in which animal cruelty and dogfighting are responded to appropriately by public law enforcement. The time is long past due in which animal organizations ensure there is a proper police response and stop exploiting animal cruelty for their own gain.