Community Conversations: Demystifying Animal Welfare Practices is a virtual gathering of York County SPCA staff and community members to discuss important, complex topics related to animal welfare practices. In these meetings, we will discuss the York County SPCA’s practices, how the community can support our mission, and matters involving animal welfare on a local and national level. In other words, we want to pull back the curtain to show our community the Who, What, Why, and How of the animal shelter world.

On April 14th, from 5 to 6pm, we will meet on Zoom to discuss Animal Cruelty and Neglect. The York County SPCA investigates hundreds of animal cruelty and neglect cases every year. In fact, in 2020, our Humane Society Police Officer, Otto Cruz, completed more than 600 animal welfare checks and nearly 200 cruelty investigations. In this virtual meeting, we will discuss how the YCSPCA manages cruelty and neglect investigations, how to report cruelty, what is considered cruelty or neglect according to Pennsylvania law, and much more.

You will learn from and engage with the following panelists:

• Otto Cruz, Humane Society Police Officer, YCSPCA
• Jennifer Tobias, Senior Trial Prosecutor, York County District Attorney’s Office
• Steven Martinez, Executive Director, YCSPCA

Prosecutor Jennifer Tobias has been practicing criminal law for over 20 years. She joined the York County DA’s office in March of 2019. Prosecutor Tobias was recently appointed as “Animal Abuse” prosecutor and is currently working a full caseload of animal cruelty cases. She is a bigtime animal lover and currently has three rescue animals living with her and her family (one adopted from the York County SPCA!).

After registering for the virtual Zoom event, you can submit questions for our panelists related to animal cruelty and neglect; or there will be an opportunity during the meeting to ask questions via Zoom’s chat feature. We will answer as many questions from our attendees as possible. You may also send questions for this virtual meeting ahead of time to community@ycspca.org.

Register for April’s conversation on animal cruelty and neglect here: https://ycspca.org/news.../april-community-conversation.html

Learn more about Community Conversations: Demystifying Animal Cruelty and Neglect here:https://ycspca.org/news-events/community-conversations.html