Animal Precinct

Animal Precinct is an American documentary reality television series created by Paul Berriff 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 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.

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 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.