Is there is a difference between an Animal Control Officer and a Animal Cruelty Investigator?
Yes there is a difference. I am an animal control officer. An "ACO" enforces the Bylaws of a city or town pertaining to licensing, running at large, vicious, barking complaints, fines, education of owner responsibilities within a Municipality. An Animal Cruelty Investigator is, exactly that. They go out and investigate complaints of cruelty to animals. This covers a number of things such as no food, water, or shelter. The owner hits the animal, the dog is starving, chained up, has some sort of disease or illness. Is kept in filthy conditions. Is in pain, isolated, mistreated, constantly pregnant females, no vet care, no vaccinations, and fighting. The investigator is responsible to collect any and all evidence that something terrible has been done to this animal and that it suffered. The go to court, and testify on behalf of these mistreated dogs and seek justice that if had been done to a human we would all be outraged. Not all cruelty cases go to court and sometimes a little education is all most owners need to make sure there pet is cared for properly. I do a combination of both.
Do animal shelters ship dogs???
Like already said, it varies from shelter to shelter and state to state. However, a friend of mine and her sister are volunteer drivers for petfinder.com and they volunteer their time to picking up and bringing out of area animals to in area places if someone is ready to adopt them. As far as I know, their max distance is a 6 hour drive, but I'm sure it depends on many factors. Go on petfinder.com and if you find an animal that you would like, talk to the shelter directly and see if they can help you. Although, I would recommend getting the animal yourself and spending that one on one time with them, it will be a very good bonding experience for both of you. Best of luck.
How do animal shelters choose what breed to label dogs at intake?
Speaking as having worked in Rescue Groups for decades, this issue is a nightmare. There is NO standard from shelter to shelter. The persons making this determination may have decades of experience or the same experience as any random person on the street. That person might be having a bad day. That person might be just burned out. And, studies show, the determination and listing of a dog as a particular breed is often different from person to person IN THE SAME SHELTER.The impact of breed determination on a given animal can be the difference between life and death, LITERALLY. For example, Pitbulls and Rottweilers and Chiahuahua s flood the shelters in the Southern and SouthWestern States.If a dog is labelled pitbull its chances of adoption plummet. If the dog is not adopted, most frequently it is then euthanized.There are many studies showing the inability of shelter workers (and even vets!) to accurately determine given breeds.For example:DNA studies reveal that shelter workers often mislabel dogs as ‘pit bulls’“… with potentially devastating consequences for the dogs, a new University of Florida study has found.“Animal shelter staff and veterinarians are frequently expected to guess the breed of dogs based on appearance alone,” said Julie Levy, D.V.M., Ph.D., a professor of shelter medicine at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine and the lead author of a study published recently in The Veterinary Journal.”“dogs lacking any genetic evidence of relevant breeds were labeled as pit bull-type dogs from 0 to 48 percent of the time, the researchers reported.”Once labelled as a pitbull, the shelter will NOT change the breed label unless someone pays for a DNA test to prove otherwise.That said, I personally know of at least two shelters/humane societies who make a concerted effort to AVOID labeling a dog as a difficult to adopt breed such as pitbull unless there is absolute clarity that it conforms to that breed standards.As a result, those two shelter/humane societies have a MUCH HIGHER adoption rate. And a lower returns rate. Coincidence? Probably not, IMHO.How do shelters decide? Might as well be a roll of the dice in many cases where the breed is not obvious. And if it is a rare or more unusual breed that the shelter employee is not personally familiar with, (can you say Cahuilla, Kooikerhondje, Bengal, etc) it is not likely to be correctly identified either.
Whats the difference between animal control officer and animal cruelty investigator?
You've already gotten answers as to the difference between these two jobs. It is possible for you to achieve either of these ranks by working at a Humane Society, but that's a very long road with a lot of hard work and you have to prove your dedication. You can call your local shelter to find out if there are schools in your area and/or what you would need to do to qualify for that program as an employee. Sometimes, they'll pay for your tuition. Good luck to you.
What's the difference between the SPCA and PETA?
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is a catch-all term used by many animal welfare organizations. They mainly focus on removing animals from abusive situations and getting them into safer situations through shelter and adoption. The various SPCA's are not necessarily organized with one another. The SPCA should not be confused with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) which is a national organization based in New York. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest animal rights organization. PETA's slogan is, "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment." Basically, they are extremists when compared to the various SPCA's around and considered to be a terrorist group by many due to their use of illegal tactics, (destroying private property, etc.) to get their point across.
What is the difference between the following animals rights groups? PETA, ASPCA, Humane Society?
PETA is basically a cult that hates people and worships animals. If they ever lost their tax exempt status as a charity they would definitely qualify as a religion. They want meat, milk and egg production banned. They want to end the practice of using domestic bees to pollinate crops that provide most of the fruit in North America, even though it would make it too expensive to be vegan. They want medical testing stopped or conducted on prisoners or human slaves instead of animals. They want organic fertilizers like manure replace with petroleum based ones. They spend most of the money they receive on publicity stunts and making shock videos. They are basically the West-borough Baptist Church of the animal lovers. The organization called Humane Society US is basically the same as PETA, in that they don't do much that actually helps animals. They are not affiliated with most of the Humane Societies that run animal shelters but rely on people confusing them with those shelters to get donations. They shot most of the seal clubbing videos. The regular Humane Societies and ASPCA are animal welfare organizations that run animal shelters and often enforce the cruelty to animal laws. They have no problem with people eating animals or keeping them as pets as long as they are not subjected to any unnecessary pain and suffering.