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Discussion on animal cruelty prosecutions and dedicated units in DAs' offices
7:11:19
ยท
3 min
Council Member Paladino inquires about dedicated animal cruelty protection teams in each DA's office, leading to responses from multiple district attorneys about their approaches to handling animal cruelty cases.
- DAs from the Bronx, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan describe their respective approaches to animal cruelty cases
- Some offices have dedicated units or coordinators, while others handle cases on a case-by-case basis
- Queens DA mentions a therapy dog program and the connection between animal abuse and domestic violence
- The discussion highlights the importance placed on animal cruelty cases across different DA offices
Vickie Paladino
7:11:19
I got one other question pertaining to animal cruelty.
7:11:23
Animal cruelty, prosecutions.
7:11:26
Does each DA office have a dedicated animal cruelty protection team?
Darcel Clark
7:11:35
We handle the cases and on a case by case basis in the a a days, do the work, but I just recently hired an animal cruelty person to start a unit for me to to begin to do that work.
Vickie Paladino
7:11:49
Very
Darcel Clark
7:11:49
good.
7:11:50
And and I know how important those cases are.
7:11:52
Look, I get all kinds of letters all the time.
7:11:54
I get more letters
Vickie Paladino
7:11:55
About animals.
Darcel Clark
7:11:56
About animals being hurt and killed than than the people
Juval Scott
7:12:00
I know.
Darcel Clark
7:12:01
Make it hiding in the Bronx.
7:12:02
So I know how important it is and how important animals are.
Michael McMahon
7:12:06
It's such an issue near and dear to our hearts.
7:12:08
We do have a dedicated ADA.
7:12:10
She has a specific unit with a detective investigator and a community person and a paralegal.
7:12:19
She wears more than one hat, I have to be honest, but anytime there's a case, it goes to her and it's handled appropriately.
7:12:25
And and she is very dedicated.
7:12:29
Thanks.
Eric Gonzalez
7:12:30
In Brooklyn, we have a dedicated coordinator in our office and a a senior assistant district attorney who is responsible for overseeing all of the cases.
7:12:41
I don't have a committed bureau a sense.
7:12:45
I don't have a whole staff, but every one of those cases is handled through her.
7:12:51
She works regularly with the ASPCA and other organizations, including doing search warrants when we learned of animals that may be being abused and going in and applying for search warrants to allow legal entry to seize those animals and of course barring them from future ownership?
Melinda Katz
7:13:11
We have a unit that sits in the Domestic Violence Bureau because as I think Councilmember Ariela said, a lot of times there is an indication of abuse in the future by the treatment of animals.
7:13:24
So we have a unit that sits in the Domestic Violence Bureau who is dedicated to animal abuse and animal crimes.
7:13:32
We also just got a therapy dog named Kimmy, which my office is very proud of.
7:13:37
I don't, you know.
7:13:38
So we use that to deal, to work with our children and any victims of crimes that may need some comforting as well, including anybody in the office I guess that is.
7:13:51
And just as much as Councilmember Palladino and Councilmember Aurelio, I like the kind words and I appreciate it.
7:13:58
But you know, we prosecute but we also try to keep people out of the court system which is very important to do both.
7:14:04
And Councilmember Palladino, I can only tell you that because there's a lot of different views in the room, I want to make it very crystal clear that unless I'm wrong, I'm going to speak for the DAs as well as our president that says we don't want to get rid of the discovery laws.
7:14:18
We don't want to backtrack that.
7:14:20
And so we do are working with the legislature on hopefully getting some amendments that will ease some of the pressure on discovery.
7:14:28
Thank you.
Vickie Paladino
7:14:29
You're welcome.
7:14:30
Thank you.
Alvin Bragg
7:14:32
Manhattan, we have a point person for our animal cruelty work, a point person who's an assistant district attorney, and she's supported by, you know, our our our senior staff as well.