Court case animals: How the animal criminal justice system is failing animal victims of cruelty and neglect

As I travel around the U.S. to help some of the nation's largest animal shelters, I regularly meet the invisible victims of the animal criminal justice system: dogs, cats, and other animals held for months and even years on 'court case' holds. They're typically held in solitary confinement kennels and can not be seen by the public or volunteers. Depending on state laws and regulations, court case animals can be considered and held as 'evidence' which means they do not receive enrichment or regular kennel breaks and are not eligible for foster placement. These conditions of extreme confinement and isolation constitute a significant and secondary trauma experienced by animals who have already survived cruelty and/or neglect.

Sunny was a court case dog held for more than a year without enrichment or kennel breaks. Though she remained friendly and affectionate towards people, she was euthanized at the conclusion of the case.

In DeKalb County, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area, the problem of court case dogs recently received much-needed attention in a story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Court dogs a burden on DeKalb's overwhelmed shelter: Animal advocates say the dogs are sometimes held in isolation for years." When I visited this shelter last year, there were more than 100 dogs on court case holds, some of which had been held in small cages for two years or more. While the average length of stay for any dog at this shelter is 37 days, the average length-of-stay for court case dogs is 329 days, about nine times longer. As the story explains, "The animals are in a legal limbo: essentially jailed at a shelter than can give them very little attention or recreation, all while still the legal property of owners accused of not providing adequate care."

In 2023, I conducted a survey of animal control and animal shelter professionals in the United States to learn more about the challenges surrounding 'court case' animals. It found more than 75% of court cases took longer than 30 days and 22% said the average case takes longer than six months to move through the court system. The top three reasons cited for the long stays in shelters were difficulty getting cases through the court system, disconnect among agencies, and the appeals process, respectively.

When it comes to understanding the scale of the national problem, there is precious little data. This is due to how 'court case' animals are combined with other confiscated animals in shelter software systems. However, when Shelter Animals Count analyzed 350,000 records of confiscated animals, they found confiscated animals were more likely to be euthanized, and less likely to be adopted, than animals taken in as strays. With shelters across the country at maximum capacity, it's urgent we solve this bottleneck to protect animal victims of cruelty and neglect and reduce the unnecessary bottleneck in the system that increases euthanasia risk for every sheltered animal.

Court case animals often experience extreme confinement and isolation for months or years while waiting for court cases to move through the system.

Some states and localities do have a civil bond forfeiture process (often referred to as "bond or forfeit" laws) in place which allows municipalities to gain permanent custody of an animal if the accused owner cannot pay the costs associated with their care. This legal process, though effective at reducing length of stay of court case animals, can lead to innocent caregivers losing their pets simply due to their inability to cover the daily costs of care and result in these pets having fewer protections against euthanasia.

The animal criminal justice system is long overdue for a complete overhaul and there has never been a more critical time to fix it. We need to turn away from unproven, 'band-aid' solutions that continue to distract from the larger structural problems of a system that not only fails to protect animal victims but often is the very condition that leads to mental distress, behavioral decline, and eventually euthanasia. Next week, in part two of this blog, I'll talk about some of the immediate changes we can make to the system and share some possible pathways to create meaningful change. We have about 150 survey responses and still need more! If you work in animal control or animal sheltering and have not yet taken this brief survey please take five minutes to help us learn more.

Read more about programs that aim to make life better for confiscated animals, including Safe Humane Chicago's Court Case Dogs program and Lifeline Animal Project's foster opportunities for court case animals.

Sincerely,

Kristen