12/16/2025
Did you know the MSPCA–Angell has a full-time Law Enforcement Department serving all 351 cities and towns across Massachusetts?
Our Law Enforcement officers are POST-certified, state-commissioned police officers who investigate animal cruelty and neglect, execute warrants, file charges, and testify in court.
What many people don’t know is that when an animal cruelty case is under investigation, animals may not be officially surrendered to us right away. In those cases, we must seize the animals and hold them as legal evidence. During that time, those animals remain in our care for months (sometimes longer). They can’t be adopted out, and we must limit the details we share while the investigation is ongoing.
That means there are often many more animals in our care than the public is aware of, whether it’s a handful of animals in a single case, or dozens at once, as is often the case in large farm seizures.
Law Enforcement is a critical part of our Animal Protection Division (APD), working hand-in-hand with local police departments as well as other MSPCA programs such as advocacy, which helps create and strengthen animal protection laws, our shelters, which provide daily care to these animals, and our volunteer fosters, who open their homes to animals who may need months of safe, quiet care until an outcome is reached.
Our Law Enforcement team works tirelessly to bring their expertise and compassion to often difficult work; they are often quietly behind the most complex, miraculous animal stories we see. Much of this work happens behind the scenes, but it relies on the same community support that makes all of our animal protection work possible.
