Unpleasant Training

I spent two days last week in a Cruelty Investigations workshop. This kind of training always leaves me in a funk. Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil in my profession. The only way to stop criminals is to study what they're doing and prepare for an interception. In the words of Sun Tzu, "Know Thy Enemy."

The speakers were prosecutors, police officers, forensic technicians, veterinarians and ASPCA cruelty investigators. Topics included:

• Blood Sports (dog fighting and cock fighting)
• Crime Scenes
• Evidence Collection
• Forensic Testing
• The Fourth Amendment
• Hoarders
• Interagency Collaborations
• Petitioning for Custody
• Writing Warrants

There's a link between violence toward animals and violence toward people. As more studies come out it's becoming obvious that animal abuse should be taken seriously. I know . . . duh. But sadly, crimes against animals have been considered "less than" for decades. Things are changing, albeit slowly. Various agencies -- animal control, police departments, code enforcement, social services -- are forming interagency task forces to stop violence and abuse. The FBI has recently started tracking various animal crimes in a national database. This is a topic that I'll share in another post soon.

I'm not going share 90% of what I learned with you guys. At least not here. Some information I want to keep close to the vest. Honestly, I don't want the bad guys to know what I know. Do I think that one of the 20 people reading my blog is an animal abuser? No. But animal abusers may or may not be trolling the internet looking for animal welfare warriors sharing information. (Just like astute animal welfare warriors may or may not be scouring the internet looking for bad guys.) Yeah, this job makes me a bit paranoid sometimes!

And I'm not going to share the details of the ugliness either. Please don't ask. (Yes, people ask!) Let's just say, it's horrific. You know how when you see a movie there's a disclaimer at the end that says "No animals were harmed?" Well, the videos I see don't have that. In fact, harming animals is the entire focus of those videos. The depravity of people is sickening. Some days I don't want to get out of bed. Sometimes the things I've seen haunt my dreams and I wake up sobbing.

On a regular basis people tell me tell me "I could never do your job." That's OK. Some days I can't do it either. There's a fine line between the desire to make a difference and emotional burnout (sometimes called compassion fatigue -- a good topic for a future post).

But please please don't say "I love animals too much to do your job." People tell me this all the time as well. It takes all I have not to scream "FUCK YOU, you self-righteous prick!" What I hear is "You must be able to do this job because you don't love animals." I'm hoping that's not what's intended, but let's set the record straight.

• I don't do this job for the money. (Even after 14 years of doing this, I still make less than the average assistant manager at McDonalds.)
• I don't do this job for the accolades. (Regular readers know that most of what people say to and about me is ugly!)
• I don't do it for the sexy uniform. (Wonder why I've never shown you a picture of my uniform?)
• Nor do I do this for the (not so) regular hours or (definitely not) clean work environment.

I do this job BECAUSE I love animals. I have the strong stomach, thick skin, analytical mind and just enough attitude to do it well (most days). That being said, if I was offered a better paying job with less shit (figurative and literal) I would probably take it.

OK, I'm starting bum myself out. Time to wrap this up and go play with the dogs. Later, -- K