Vets' role in animal cruelty cases

By Kris Otteman, DVM, Dipl. ABVP Shelter Medicine, CAWA; Linda Fielder, CAWA, and Emily Lewis, Esq. MSEL

"Ninety-nine percent of animal cruelty cases cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt without testimony from a veterinary professional."
–Jacob Kamins, senior assistant attorney general, animal cruelty resource prosecutor

Introduction

Veterinarians are unequivocally at the heart of the response to animal cruelty. Jacob Kamins, a prosecutor for animal crimes in Oregon for the past 11 years, has prosecuted hundreds of animal cruelty cases. While his statement illustrates the essential nature of the veterinarian's role at trial, it only scratches the surface of the impact veterinarians can have on combating animal cruelty in their communities.

Veterinarians are uniquely positioned to be instrumental in both preventing and responding to animal cruelty. From advocacy to your state representatives to performing forensic examinations to preventing neglect before it occurs, the vital role of veterinarians cannot be understated.

By explaining all the dimensions of veterinary involvement and how your existing training and skills serve you well at every turn, by the conclusion of this feature, you should feel emboldened to step into these heroic positions.

Prevention

By explicitly highlighting "prevention . . . of animal suffering,"¹ the Veterinarian's Oath effectively endorses the many steps the veterinary community can take to prevent animal cruelty.

As veterinarians, we have the best vantage point to identify issues with treating an animal at an early stage. This opens the door to intervention, education, and creative problem-solving in an effort to preserve the human-animal bond where appropriate. So much of our job is educating our clients about their pet's health and care needs. Unfortunately, all too often, we encounter prohibitive financial constraints to our clients, frustrating our efforts at education to help our patients.

To address this challenge—that can be the difference in preserving a bond and keeping people in the community out of the courtroom—client education should be paired with resources (such as local food banks, vaccine clinics, or low-cost spay/neuter events) or customized treatment plans that both address the welfare of the animal and the owner's capacity to provide care.

Working together with your client towards the best outcome for their animal by learning from each other directly translates to a reduced risk of animal crime in your community.

Private clinic response

While the majority of concerns for an animal's welfare can be resolved through education before they rise to the level of criminal intervention, you will encounter animals in your practice that you have a good faith belief are victims of cruelty. Your role as the veterinarian transitions from educating the client to educating enforcement entities that can investigate the situation further. Many resources are available to veterinarians and their staff about how to respond when confronted with suspected animal cruelty, including some that provide templates for a clinic policy on how to respond.²

Although you may not see patients that raise this concern regularly, you still employ the veterinary skills and training you apply to every other patient. The suspicion of animal maltreatment will often surface during the physical examination. Your findings during this exam and information provided by the owner might begin to raise red flags.

In addition to carefully recording physical exam findings in the medical record, veterinarians should do the following in cases of suspected cruelty: make notes about concerns that fall outside the general exam checklist (such as behavior, odor, matting); take photographs of any visible concerns such as lesions, bruising, or mats; perform full body radiographs if you suspect physical abuse; and note any additional information garnered by clinic staff or from the individuals who brought in the animal.

Rely on your veterinary training and trust your skills when the story of an injury or condition does not match what you are seeing on the animal. Although it may seem counterintuitive, individuals who mistreat animals do also bring them to the veterinarian for treatment; the reasons for this may vary but the occurrence of it does not.

Animal cruelty is a crime³ and therefore can be investigated by local law enforcement agencies. When you report your concerns, be prepared to provide them with the owner's name, address, and contact information along with a description of your concerns. As a veterinarian who has witnessed the animal's condition firsthand, do not hesitate to emphasize your qualifications and experience when making the report. The enforcement agency may respond to your clinic immediately or may choose to follow up with the individuals later. Generally, you are not permitted to hold the animal without the owner's consent unless law enforcement intervenes to seize or impound the animal.

Assisting law enforcement

Just as law enforcement officers utilize the medical examiner in cases involving human death or a firearms expert at a scene in which guns were discharged in the commission of a crime, they rely on the forensic findings of veterinarians when investigating a report of animal cruelty.

Veterinarians can identify evidence that would otherwise be overlooked and pose informed questions. For this reason, veterinarians might be asked by a local law enforcement agency to review case materials—reports, records, photographs, and videos—and provide an expert opinion about the evidence. We may also be asked to assist with the execution of a search warrant or conduct a forensic examination on an animal connected to an ongoing investigation.

When assisting law enforcement, it is paramount to remember we are being asked to do so because of our requisite knowledge and skills needed to evaluate and identify evidence of animal cruelty. Reviewing and assessing images and witness reports mean you are not examining the animal itself, and officers may have questions you are unable to answer. Do not hesitate to volunteer information about what is catching your attention in the materials you reviewed—behavioral red flags or injuries that do not match the story—this can expand the scope of an investigation by bringing additional details to light.

If you are asked to conduct an examination on an animal related to an investigation, communicate with the officer about any protocols you should be aware of and educate the officer about what your process will look like. Proceed with the examination as outlined earlier. Be meticulous in your documentation and use a scribe if it is helpful to ensure every detail is recorded. These notes will be used to generate the report you will present to the officer.

These same guidelines apply when a law enforcement agency needs your assistance in the execution of a search warrant. In this role, you are given the opportunity to take in more information about the circumstances where an animal is found and incorporate that information into your assessment and diagnosis. The lead agency should provide you with logistical details about what to expect and, again, there are numerous resources you can avail yourself of in advance to prepare.

Be confident about contributing ideas about safe animal handling and plans for triage of sick or injured animals.

Assisting a prosecutor

A veterinarian can play several roles in a cruelty case at a prosecutor's request. If you have conducted an exam on a victim or assisted with the execution of a search warrant in an animal cruelty case, then you will contribute your expertise to the prosecution as the primary veterinarian on the case, and you can give testimony about your firsthand observations.

With our expertise, we can be called as witness to give qualified opinion about the evidence presented in a case even without examining an animal or the scene directly. Sometimes, we can play both the role of a primary veterinarian and an expert witness in a case.

The prosecutor relies on the veterinarian to explain the evidence, so they know what criminal charges are applicable and how to question other witnesses on the stand. As a testifying witness in a criminal case, it is not your job to win the case, but to tell the truth and share your expertise with the judge or the jury. By putting a veterinarian on the witness stand, the prosecutor is giving a voice to the victim animal who is unable to testify to the injuries, illnesses, or conditions they experienced.

Animal shelter response

Shelter medicine is now a board-certified specialty in veterinary medicine. The veterinarians practicing in an animal shelter environment are likely to encounter animal cruelty cases or be called on to assist enforcement agencies with cases.

Whether taking in an animal surrendered from the public or helping with a large-scale seizure of animals, the foundational principles still apply—document your observations, photograph the animals and the environment when possible, plan to generate a report, and provide necessary medical care to the animal(s).
When an animal shelter plays the role of an evidence-holding facility for many victims seized during a criminal investigation, the enforcement agency relies on that entity to collect additional evidence and safeguard the animals in their care. The primary veterinarian needs to conduct examinations on the animals as soon as possible, and access to the animal population should be restricted from the public.

When law enforcement has the resource of an animal shelter with well-trained staff to assist with animal handling and evidence identification and collection, the response to animal cruelty concerns in that community is more efficient, comprehensive, and successful.

Legislation

Legislation is one of the most effective means of combating animal cruelty and can potentially protect the largest number of animals. Your veterinary degree and experience provide valuable insight for elected officials, lobbyists, and committee members when they are drafting or proposing new additions to your state or local laws and ordinances.

The laws protecting animals need to consider their physiology, care needs, and behavioral tendencies to be successfully applied in the field. Legislators rely on veterinary input, through task forces or testimony to legislative committees, to strengthen their statutes in this way.

Conclusion

In each instance, the veterinarian is an educator, just to different audiences. We already have the knowledge and experience in the subject matter; we are simply presenting it in varying ways depending on the audience, which can include our clients, our staff, a police officer, a prosecutor, another veterinarian, a legislator, or a jury.

This is not to say it is easy to play any of these roles or that our schedules lend themselves to yet another commitment, but remember the oath, remember why you became a veterinarian, and remember you are not alone in this fight against animal cruelty.

Working together in the field of shelter medicine and humane investigations, the creators of Victim to Verdict LLC combined their cross-disciplinary expertise and experience to create resources that provide education and support to anyone responding to animal cruelty concerns. The Victim to Verdict team includes Kris Otteman, DVM, ABVP Shelter Medicine, CAWA, national forensic veterinarian; Linda Fielder, CAWA, animal cruelty investigations and response expert; and Emily Lewis, Esq. MSEL, animal protection attorney. Their comprehensive textbook, titled Animal Cruelty Investigations: A Collaborative Approach from Victim to Verdict, published in 2022, was followed with the launch of an engaging online training program through the Oregon State University. 

References

1. American Veterinary Medical Association (2024, Oct. 7). Veterinarian's Oath. https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/avma-policies/veterinarians-oath
2. The book, Animal Cruelty Investigations: A Collaborative Approach from Victim to Verdict provides a template for a clinic policy on response to animal cruelty and multiple customizable forms can be found on the Victim to Verdict website (www.victim2verdict.com). National organizations, such as the ASPCA and the International Veterinary Forensic Sciences Association, have forms and templates readily available.
3. Animal Legal Defense Fund (2024, Oct. 7). 2023 U.S. Animal Protection Laws Rankings: The Best and Worst States and Territories for Animal Protection Laws. https://aldf.org/project/us-state-rankings/