PAWS empowers localities to make sustainable changes that are beneficial to both their residents and companion animals by hosting workshops that bring together animal services staff, law enforcement, prosecutors, and local government officials to review and design ordinances, policies, and programs tailored to the particular jurisdiction.
Class Examples
Collaborative Case-Building
This course trains law enforcement officers, animal control officers, and prosecutors to effectively work together on animal cases to achieve compliance and justice. It includes a discussion of the practices that officers can take throughout an investigation to allow a prosecutor to successfully prosecute an animal case.
Search and Seizure Laws for Animal Cases
This course covers the law of search & seizure in reference to animal cases. Specifically, it covers caselaw and best practices concerning the exigent circumstances and plain view exceptions to warrant requirements.
Understanding Georgia Animal Cruelty Law
This course covers the basics of the Georgia animal cruelty statute, together with relevant caselaw, so that participants understand how to identify when an offense warrants state charges and the elements needed to successfully prosecute.
Achieving Compliance in Court: Arraignments and Trial Practices
This course covers approaches to arraignments and trials in animal cases that focus on achieving compliance in offenders, rather than merely punishing them. It also includes the basics of direct and cross-examinations in trials to better prepare both prosecutors and witnesses for their day in court.
Investigative Report Writing
This course covers the basics of writing investigative reports for cases involving animals, focusing on what is unique about reports for animal cases including the use of photos and videos in reports, understanding veterinary evidence, and identifying and describing the paraphernalia and conditions often present at these scenes.
Preventative Practices, Programs, and Ordinances
This course covers practices, programs, and ordinances that localities can adopt to help prevent crimes involving animals. While ordinances are often envisioned as punitive, in combination with local programs and practices they can often help prevent bigger crimes by allowing intervention before harm becomes irreversible.