''Animal Precinct'' is an American documentary

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed ...

that originally aired from June 26, 2001, to February 4, 2008, on

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily d ...

. Set in New York City, the series follows the animal cruelty agents of the ASPCA's Humane Law Enforcement Division as they work as advocates for the five million pets and other animals in New York City, sometimes removing them from dangerous situations and pursuing arrests of those who have been accused of being cruel to animals. The show was filmed locally by crews from Anglia Television, edited in the UK and shown on

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...

networks worldwide.

Format

When the series debuted in 2001, episodes were 30 minutes in length. This was later extended to a full hour, and remained there for all subsequent seasons. The

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other dist ...

was quite different from subsequent episodes, as it focused primarily on Special Investigator Annemarie Lucas and included her discussing various parts of her job, such as how she felt about carrying a gun.

Seasons

Specials

"Animal Precinct at Ground Zero"

On October 12, 2001, Animal Planet aired a one-hour special focused on the work to rescue the many animals that were affected by the fall of the World Trade Center towers on September 11.

Cast

The ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement (HLE) officers can be classified as Special Agents or Special Investigators. Many HLE officers are identified by name on-camera; however, some are not, instead spoken of only by initial (most notably "Special Agent M" and "Special Agent Q") with their faces blurred when on-camera as a way to protect their identities so that they can do undercover work for the ASPCA. During the first three seasons, the HLE team had ten investigators. At the start of the fourth season, the team had been expanded to fifteen investigators. In season six, the team expanded again, and as of May 2008, the HLE has twenty investigators, including a female undercover agent ("Special Agent L"). In 2007, Special Investigator Annemarie Lucas was promoted to Supervisory Special Investigator. As a result of the extra duties associated with her promotion, she does fewer street work cases, but still occasionally participates in investigations when other agents need her assistance. * Kristi Adams * John De La Torre * Diane DiGiacomo (died in the line of duty, see below) * Adam Gankiewicz * Bob Clark * Mike Geller * Paul Lai * Annemarie Lucas * Mark MacDonald * Joe Pentangelo * Richard Raheb * Peter Rivas * Paul Romano * Henry Ruiz (formerly "Special Agent H" when he was undercover) * Richard Ryan *

Tina Salaks Tina Salaks, a resident of New York City, is a former special agent with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Humane Law Enforcement Division appearing in the "Animal Precinct" series on Animal Planet. Biograph ...

* Joann Sandano * Timothy Stack * Michelle Norman (currently running a blo
AnimalsEvent.com
* Michael Tietje (retired in 2006)

Special Agent H

Special Agent Henry Ruiz was known as "Special Agent H" during the show's early seasons but revealed his true identity in the episode aired on July 18, 2005, after he ceased performing undercover work. Ruiz's "unmasking" was the subject of a series of special episodes of ''Animal Precinct'', in which footage of Ruiz's past rescues was shown for the first time without the facial blurring, as well as footage from his last major undercover operation for the ASPCA (reconnaissance and surveillance of an area holding roosters bred for cock fighting) with Ruiz demonstrating and explaining his undercover techniques on-camera. However, completed episodes filmed while Ruiz was still "Special Agent H" still have his face blurred whenever he appears on-screen.

Diane DiGiacomo

In 2014, Special Investigator Diane DiGiacomo was diagnosed with cancer that was directly attributed to her exposure to toxins while working as a part of animal search and rescue operations after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

that were depicted in the ''Animal Precinct at Ground Zero'' special. DiGiacomo died on November 20, 2015, as a result of that cancer. Although DiGiacomo's death occurred over 14 years after the attack and almost 2 years after the January 2014 dissolution of the Humane Law Enforcement Division, the Officer Down Memorial Page considers her death to be in the line of duty. This makes DiGiacomo the only known line of duty death in the history of the ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement Division.

Equipment

The agents of the ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement have full police powers. Their police powers stem from a law that was written in 1866 by ASPCA founder Henry Bergh. They are certified New York State

peace officer A law enforcement officer (LEO), or peace officer in North American English, is a public-sector employee whose duties primarily involve the enforcement of laws. The phrase can include campaign disclosure specialists, local police officers, pro ...

s and have statewide jurisdiction, though they only work in the confines of New York City's 5 boroughs (Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island). The agents of the ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement have the same equipment

NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

police officers do, plus some items that are specialized for animal-related work. The agents are issued either a

Glock 19 Glock is a brand of polymer- framed, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. The firearm entered Austrian military and police service by 1982 after it was the ...

9mm or a Smith & Wesson 5906 9mm handgun,

pepper spray Pepper spray, oleoresin capsicum spray, OC spray, capsaicin spray, or capsicum spray is a lachrymatory agent (a compound that irritates the eyes to cause a burning sensation, pain, and temporary blindness) used in policing, riot control, ...

, ASP baton, and

handcuffs Handcuffs are restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists in proximity to each other. They comprise two parts, linked together by a chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each cuff has a rotating arm which engages with a ratchet that ...

. Their squad cars are Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors,

van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

s, and

SUVs A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definit ...

. They carry poles and cages for animal catches and seizures.

Reception

The success of ''Animal Precinct'' led Animal Planet to create an "

umbrella rotation A wheel series, wheel show, wheel format or umbrella series is a television series in which two or more regular programs are rotated in the same time slot. Sometimes the wheel series is given its own umbrella title and promoted as a single unit i ...

" of similar shows known collectively as "Animal Planet Heroes". Though the shows have similar formats, each has its own unique elements due to the differences in the ways the individual cities deal with animal care and cruelty cases. There have currently been eight similar shows based on the ''Animal Precinct'' concept: * '' Animal Cops: Detroit'' (

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

) * '' Animal Cops: Houston'' (

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

) * '' Miami Animal Police'' ( Miami-Dade,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

) * '' Animal Cops: San Francisco'' (

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

) * '' Animal Cops: Phoenix (formally "Animal Planet Heroes: Phoenix")'' (

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the o ...

) * '' Animal Cops: South Africa'' (

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

) * '' Animal Cops: Philadelphia'' (

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

) * '' Animal Cops: Miami'' (also Miami-Dade,

) In 2002, the series won the Genesis Award for the "Best Reality Programming" category.

References

;General * ;Specific

External links

* *
ASPCA page on Animal Precinct

NPR story on ''Weekend Edition''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Animal Precinct 2000s American reality television series 2001 American television series debuts 2008 American television series endings 2000s American crime television series 2000s American documentary television series Cruelty to animals Animal Planet original programming Law enforcement in the United States Television series by ITV Studios Television shows set in New York City