Julie McKuras

Minnesota State Director Jill Fritz with her pug, Lucy.

As part of The HSUS’s community outreach efforts, Minnesota State Director Jill Fritz spoke in April at the spring conference of the Minnesota Animal Control Officers Association.
 
MACA is the largest animal control organization in the state. Fritz spoke about The HSUS’s emergency services and animal cruelty and fighting programs, and gave details gleaned from animal fighting and cruelty investigations to help educate the officers. She displayed animal fighting implements, including the long knives and ice pick-like “gaffs” that are attached to a roosters’s legs for fighting, so that officers know what to look for when investigating these crimes.
 
As part of her presentation, Fritz detailed the October 2007 cockfighting bust in San Diego, which was the largest in U.S. history, with more than 5,000 birds confiscated and 50 people arrested at the time of the raid.
 
“I talked about the coordination between The HSUS emergency services department, Animal Fighting and Cruelty campaign, regional offices, and local law enforcement,” Fritz said.
 
The HSUS has trained hundreds of officers as part of our reinvigorated animal fighting campaign. HSUS Field Services Director Debra Parsons-Drake said such presentations are “part of our mission to build capacity in communities, because these issues are going to come up, and animal control officers need to be prepared when they do.”