Animal cruelty training held for local law enforcement

Today the Humane Society of the United States (no relation to the El Paso Humane Society) held training at the El Paso Police Academy focused on what officers should look for when it comes to animal cruelty. This training program has been reaping benefits across the country.

“Every single time we offer one of these trainings we get fantastic feedback from the officers. It’s really useful information and animals are something that everyone in the community cares about,” says Nikki Prather, the Texas Deputy State Director for the Humane society of the United States.

The training held at the El Paso Police Training Academy was not just for El Paso Police, but for multiple law enforcement agencies all across El Paso County. Better yet, the training came at no cost to local law enforcement and other agencies.

“I believe the training that we have right now is going to benefit not just our police department, but like I said, Horizon PD is here, animal services is here, El Paso County Sheriff’s Office is here. So it’s a joint effort, you know, to better the lives of animals within the city and the county,” says Sergeant Sandra Zamudio of the El Paso Police Department’s Animal Cruelty Investigations Unit.

The training specifically focused on livestock animals and the two different types of abuse, commission, which is deliberate harm to an animal, and omission, which is neglecting an animal.

Some of the topics covered at today’s event were:

— Standards of care and how to assess physical and living conditions

— Common conditions and potential causes

— Basic disease information

— Correct handling

— Investigating complaints from beginning to end

— Interviews, warrants, and evidence collection

— Ongoing care, resources and case management

“What these trainings do is help the officers learn what to look for from the very beginning of the case, evidence collection, what types of questions to ask informants, all the way to conviction,” says Prather.

If you see abuse to any animal, whether it’s livestock or pets, you can easily report it via the Animal Cruelty Investigations Unit hotline at (915) 212-0800.