Animal Precinct
Encyclopedia
Animal Precinct is an American documentary
reality television series that originally aired from June 26, 2001, to February 4, 2008, on Animal Planet
. 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
networks worldwide.
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.
, 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.
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.
) 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.
. They are certified New York State peace officer
s and have state wide 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 are equipped with the same equipment NYPD police officers are equipped with. The agents are issued either a Glock 19 9mm or a Smith and Wesson 5906 9mm handgun, pepper spray, ASP baton, and handcuffs.
Their squad cars are Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor
s, van
s, and SUVs.
They carry poles and cages for seizures and catches.
In 2002, the series won the Genesis Award for the "Best Reality Programming" category.
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
reality television series that originally aired from June 26, 2001, to February 4, 2008, on Animal Planet
Animal Planet
Animal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...
. Set in New York City, the series follows the animal cruelty agents of the ASPCA's Humane Law Enforcement Division
ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement Division
The ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement Division is the law enforcement arm of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals...
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
Anglia Television
Anglia Television is the ITV franchise holder for the East Anglia franchise region. Although Anglia Television takes its name from East Anglia, its transmission coverage extends beyond the generally accepted boundaries of that region. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional...
, edited in the UK and shown on Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
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 episodeTelevision pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
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
| Season | # Episodes | Premiered | Ended |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 | June 26, 2001 | January 7, 2002 |
| 2 | 17 | December 23, 2002 | February 10, 2003 |
| 3 | 15 | August 4, 2003 | April 12, 2004 |
| 4 | 10 | September 20, 2004 | December 16, 2005 |
| 5 | 17 | April 15, 2006 | September 29, 2006 |
| 6 | 16 | April 16, 2007 | November 2, 2007 |
| 7 | 9 | January 14, 2008 | February 4, 2008 |
"Animal Precinct at Ground Zero"
On October 12, 2001, at 9 p.m. Eastern TimeNorth American Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
, 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
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
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 undercoverUndercover
Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...
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
- 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
- Joann Sandano
- Allison Cardona
- Timothy Stack
- 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 fightingCockfight
A cockfight is a blood sport between two roosters , held in a ring called a cockpit. Cockfighting is now illegal throughout all states in the United States, Brazil, Australia and in most of Europe. It is still legal in several U.S. territories....
) 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.
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 BerghHenry Bergh
Henry Bergh founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in April, 1866, three days after the first effective legislation against animal cruelty in the United States was passed into law by the New York State Legislature...
. They are certified New York State peace officer
Peace officer
A law enforcement officer , in North America, is any public-sector employee or agent whose duties involve the enforcement of laws. The phrase can include police officers, prison officers, customs officers, immigration officers, bailiffs, probation officers, parole officers, auxiliary officers, and...
s and have state wide 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 are equipped with the same equipment NYPD police officers are equipped with. The agents are issued either a Glock 19 9mm or a Smith and Wesson 5906 9mm handgun, pepper spray, ASP baton, and handcuffs.
Their squad cars are Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor
Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor
Though the name has been officially in use since 1992, the 1978–1991 full-size LTDs and LTD Crown Victorias and 1992 updated body style used the "P72" production code designation for both fleet/taxi and police models, with the model itself being internally classified as S...
s, van
Van
A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or groups of people.In British English usage, it can be either specially designed or based on a saloon or sedan car, the latter type often including derivatives with open backs...
s, and SUVs.
They carry poles and cages for seizures and catches.
Reception
The success of Animal Precinct led Animal Planet to create an "umbrella rotation" 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, MichiganMichiganMichigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
) - Animal Cops: Houston (Houston, TexasTexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
) - Miami Animal PoliceMiami Animal PoliceMiami Animal Police is an American documentary reality television series that premiered on January 5, 2004 on Animal Planet. Produced by Lion Television, the program is set in Miami, Florida and the surrounding Miami-Dade County, an area of more than...
(Miami-Dade, FloridaFloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
) - Animal Cops: San Francisco (San Francisco, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
) - Animal Cops: Phoenix (Phoenix, ArizonaPhoenix, ArizonaPhoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
) - Animal Cops: South Africa (Cape of Good HopeCape of Good HopeThe Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
, South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
) - Animal Cops: Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
) - Animal Cops: MiamiAnimal Cops: MiamiAnimal Cops: Miami is an American documentary reality television series that premiered in 2010 on Animal Planet. The program follows the work of the investigators and animal control officers employed by the Miami-Dade Animal Services Department in Miami-Dade County, Florida...
(Miami-Dade, FloridaFloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
)
In 2002, the series won the Genesis Award for the "Best Reality Programming" category.