Episode 7: Animal Cruelty and AJA (Animal Justice Advocates)

Well, first of all, the way we got started was I got a call from Tom saying, "Hey, can you meet me at the courthouse on Thursday at 1:30 for a case?" And I did.

We went in and, and witnessed, uh, a, a case that was coming up in the court.

And as we left, I said to Tom, "You know, it's gotta be more than just you and me sitting out here, uh, showing our support for the animals.

We need more.

We need an army." So, from that point forward, we decided that we should start an organization or a, um, a program under SNIP, and we called it Animal Justice Advocacy.

Our mission is to shine a light on what's happening, uh, from start to end with animal cruelty cases in Collier County.

We're also actually working with other people throughout the state of Florida who are doing the same thing.

And, uh, o- our focus right now is, is going to the courtroom, uh, watching what's happening with each of these cases.

In some cases, we are delving deeper and finding out what happened from beginning to, to end with that case, and we're trying to understand what the process is, what is happening, uh, and look for ways that we can better address enforcement in the county and to make sure that the animals get justice.

We're speaking for the animals who can't.

Um, so that's basically our mission.

Uh, we are very much on the front end at this point.

We are going to be looking for volunteers as time goes on, as we start to get into more tracking of cases, um, and, and, uh, research on what has happened with specific, uh, cases.

So at this point, AJA is, is looking for, first of all, volunteers who are willing to buy an orange shirt, like Kathleen and I have on, and, uh, show up at the courthouse when asked.

Uh, we will be managing that.

We can't have a lot of people show up 'cause the courtrooms are not that large.

But it's a little bit of a frustrating job in that you can show up and sit there for an hour, and they might defer the case t- a few months out.

But it's working.

When we arrive at the courthouse and walk in, and the bailiffs look down at me and say, "Oh, there's an animal cruelty case today," they know why we're there, and they know we're watching.

And I do believe we are having an impact already with just being there and showing up.

Um, we are in the process of getting a website ready to launch.

Um, and on that website will be a lot of information, and I'm going to pass it to Kathleen to talk a little bit about that and, and what you'll be able to do with that.