Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Area animal welfare groups partner with Crime Stoppers to bring awareness and prosecution to animal cruelty

Animals suffering from abuse, neglect or abandonment are benefiting from a new partnership among area animal welfare groups and Crime Stoppers. Together, the groups have launched a state-wide anonymous tip and reward program to make it easier for people anywhere in Colorado to report inhumane activities involving dogs, cats or horses.

Anonymous tips can be reported via phone or text. The messages are received at Crime Stoppers through a secure online system that protects a caller’s identity. Crime Stoppers then routes the message to the appropriate agency for action.

Rewards of up to $2,000 are available if the tip results in a summons or an arrest. Rewards are paid through a third party, thus further assuring anonymity. Funding for the rewards comes from a private donor.

Tips can be reported via phone or text to Crime Stoppers.

PHONE: (720) 913-STOP (7867)

TEXT: 274637 (CRIMES), then title DMCS and enter the message

Partnering with Crime Stoppers in the program are the Dumb Friends League, the Colorado Humane Society, Boulder Police Department, Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, Larimer Humane Society, Lakewood Animal Control, Mesa County Animal Services, Rifle Police Department, Westminster Police Department, Wheat Ridge Police Department, and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department.

Animal welfare agents and law enforcement agencies rely largely on tips from the public to investigate activities such as dog fighting or other acts of cruelty or neglect. But many people are reluctant to report what they witness because they fear retaliation. This new program allows people the protection they may require before coming forward.

People in the eight-county metro-Denver area may also report animal cruelty directly to the Dumb Friends League at (303) 923-0022 or ddfl.org.

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