Frequently Asked Questions About Reporting Animal Cruelty

Dog - Frequently Asked Questions About Reporting Animal Cruelty

What is animal cruelty?

Animal cruelty involves inflicting harm, injuring, or killing an animal. The cruelty can be intentional, such as kicking, burning, stabbing, beating, or shooting; or it can involve neglect, such as depriving an animal of water, shelter, food, and necessary medical treatment. Animal fighting, in which animals are trained or forced to attack each other in violent confrontations at the risk of grave injury or death, is another form of animal cruelty.

Should I report animal cruelty if I suspect it, but do not have proof?

Yes. Animal cruelty is against the law in every state, and certain acts of animal abuse are also considered felonies. It is important to report a suspected crime, whether it is animal abuse, child abuse, or some other illegal act. The job of law enforcement is to investigate suspicious activities. Do not worry if you cannot “prove your case.” The information in your report, even if it is not “complete,” will help law enforcement investigate your suspicions, determine the facts, and decide if further action is warranted.

Who should I call to report animal cruelty?

Because animal cruelty is a crime, we recommend that you first report any suspected abuse to the local police or sheriff. If you suspect an act of cruelty is presently occurring or will soon occur, and feel that emergency action is warranted to prevent serious injury or death to an animal, call 911. To report animal cruelty that has already occurred, call your local police department at the main number.

In addition to law enforcement agencies, it is recommended that you call the local animal services agency or humane society. Many communities also have dedicated animal cruelty hotlines. Sometimes these agencies are associated with the police or sheriff’s department. 

Can I make a report anonymously?

You may remain anonymous. However, a case is more likely to be pursued if the person reporting is willing to give their name, assist in the investigation, and, if needed, give testimony. If you do give your name to law enforcement, it can be kept confidential. 

What kind of information will the police want?

Provide as much detail as possible: location, time, description of perpetrator(s), number of incidents, type and description of animal(s) involved, and any injuries observed. Take detailed notes, and if you can do so without risking personal injury, take a photo or video of the animal—either during or following the incident. Provide the names and contact information of other witnesses, if there are any.

What kind of follow-up is needed after I report?

Keep a record of what information you gave the police, as well as the date you gave it, and the officer to whom you spoke. Ask authorities when you can expect a response, and follow up after a reasonable amount of time.

What if I call and the police do not respond?

If you do not achieve a satisfactory response, call again. Determine who the supervisor is and call that person. Keep records of every call, noting date, time, and contact person. If there still is no action, call your local prosecutor’s office and report your concerns. If authorities repeatedly fail to respond, you might want to contact the office of the mayor or chief of police to register a complaint. Depending on the seriousness of the offense, you could also report it to the local FBI office.  If all else fails, consider reaching out to a local investigative reporter or media outlet, or sharing the information via social media if doing so would not put you in danger.

Should I try to stop someone harming an animal if I am nearby?

Use your judgment and stay safe. If you are an adult and feel safe and competent to handle the situation, then approaching a person who may be harming an animal, or about to harm an animal, could constitute the fastest and most effective intervention. However, when in doubt, don’t confront the perpetrator. Call 911 and make sure to note as many identifying details as possible.

How can I respond to animal cruelty that I notice on a social media platform, such as Facebook or Instagram?

This is a challenging issue to navigate, as it is often difficult to determine the origin and authenticity of the materials. While it may seem counterintuitive, it is important NOT to report the offending material to the social media platform (e.g., Facebook). If a post is found to be contrary to the site’s guidelines, the post will be removed. Sometimes, the poster’s account will be deactivated as well. In either situation, this prevents law enforcement from having access to the offending post in question. The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and Jill Hollander, senior assistant district attorney for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit, published an excellent blog post about actions you can take if you witness suspected animal cruelty on social media. The Animal Legal Defense Fund has granted us permission to reproduce that post below:

The Internet and social media are reflections of our society—the good, the bad, and the ugly. All too often the Animal Legal Defense Fund gets calls and emails from people who have stumbled across digital content that contains images depicting obvious acts of animal abuse asking us what they should do about the evidence they have discovered.

Before we get into the details of the answer, to avoid a common point of confusion, let’s ensure we are all clear about the content at issue here. As a general rule (subject to a handful of key exceptions related to obscenity), images depicting criminal conduct are not illegal to possess, share, or distribute … 

[However,] the cruel conduct depicted in those images is illegal and that is where we must focus the effort. The key obscenity-related exceptions noted above involve child pornography, crush videos and other content that qualifies as criminally obscene, but those are topics for another conversation.

Thus, for purposes of this piece, we are focused on how we identify the people who posted the digital images depicting animal cruelty as they are, at a minimum, presumptively linked to the illegal acts depicted in those images.

Understandably, when someone is first exposed to this digital carnage, their initial reaction is to get those images pulled off the site as soon as possible. However, that is the worst possible first step because once the data is pulled off of the site it is (as a general rule) gone and not recoverable and cannot be used as evidence at a trial. That means the key evidence contained in the file and the ability to trace the posting back to the IP address used to upload the content is gone. So, resist the impulse to get the offending content removed before law enforcement has an opportunity to preserve it for trial.

Your first step is to download (screenshots are weak evidence, so only use them as a backup) the images at issue and collect all of the account details that you can—like the poster’s account name and other identifiers, the full text of account owner’s posting(s), any comments posted with the images, etc.

While most social media sites scrub (or remove) metadata from uploaded images, downloading the image makes it easier to diagnose whether a still image is authentic or has been Photoshopped in some form. (Yes, there are people out there who doctor photos and post them just to see the outraged reactions they will get).

The next step—report what you have found to the local law enforcement agency where the poster’s account originates (or to your local law enforcement agency if the account does not disclose a location) along with copies of the images and account information you have collected. In that report, be sure to include an express request that:

  1. An officer file a formal preservation request pursuant to 18 USC § 2703(f) of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act with the host site;
  2. The agency fully investigate the crimes depicted in the images you have discovered; and
  3. You understand that you may be called as a fact witness as needed as the case progresses (your willingness to cooperate with the entire case is key to getting the ball rolling).

Armed with the information you’ve collected, law enforcement can get to work sending the legal process required (e.g., grand jury subpoena or search warrant). In lay terms: (1) law enforcement will first contact the host site to get the original content that was uploaded, the date and time it was uploaded, any data regarding the location the file was posted from if they maintain that data, the IP address, and any interaction other individuals had with the post; and (2) once the officer has these details, law enforcement is able to send legal process to the poster’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) for the subscriber information associated with the IP address used to complete the upload.

Once this information is received, which can take some time, officers will most likely have sufficient probable cause to apply for a search warrant to have a look at the poster’s devices. Once law enforcement has access to the devices, the officer can search for the original images that were the subject of the offending post and all of the metadata that comes with digital images.

A word about metadata associated with digital images: unless special care is taken, those who shoot videos or take photographs create more than just the images at issue—they also capture the metadata for those images. Image metadata (commonly known as “EXIF” data) contains some key information like the GPS coordinates of the location of the image, the date and time the image was taken, the manufacturer and model number of the camera—things like that.

Thus, EXIF data is highly relevant to prosecutors who will later have to prove the identity of the offender, the jurisdiction and venue of the offense, and that the acts depicted in the images occurred before the expiration of the relevant statute of limitations. Stated another way: EXIF data helps prosecutors prove the “when” and “where” in the world of “who, what, when, where, and how.”

But here is the rub: as a general rule, the only way to get EXIF data is from the file itself and that generally means retrieving it from the original recording device. As noted above, gaining access to those devices is, at least, a two-step process that only works if the host site still has the original posting at the time law enforcement gets to work on the case. So, please DO NOT demand that the site pull the images—there is a lot of work to be done first.

Additionally, DO NOT comment on the image or the poster’s account or share the posting. This could tip them off that law enforcement is on the case, leading them to remove the image or video before police can preserve essential evidence.

This protocol will work most of the time, but as is true in life, not in every case. However, making a good-faith effort to ID these people is the best we can do. It is an ugly world out there, but with your help, we can visit some real accountability on those who use the Internet as a vehicle to stroke their egos when preying upon the voiceless and vulnerable.