Читать книгу Animal Cruelty Investigations - Группа авторов - Страница 149

It is all too common that animal control, law enforcement, and animal welfare organizations are working with limited resources, personnel, and equipment. Due to these circumstances and others – including vast geographic response areas, weather, holidays, etc. – an immediate or same‐day response to a report may be impractical or impossible. A system for triaging reports can help ensure that investigators attend to the most critical cases as soon as possible. When developing a triage matrix for your organization, it is important to set realistic response goals based on your agency's staffing and resources. A sample triage matrix might look like this:

Red (immediate response): Deceased or dying animal, or emergency such as a dog confined in a hot car, a horse stuck in flooded pasture, organized animal fight in progress, animal crime with human crime investigation in progress (such as domestic violence).

Orange (response within 24 hours): Abandoned animals without food or water, emaciated, ill, or injured animals, physical abuse with injury.

Yellow (response within 48 hours): Inadequate shelter (not life‐threatening), poor sanitation, hoarding/overcrowding, physical abuse (no injury observed), overgrown hooves, or lack of grooming.