DA announces animal-abuse prosecution protocols

Local law-enforcement officers investigating reports of suspected animal abuse should consult with the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office before determining charges, according to the DA’s new protocol.

Suspected incidents involving serious animal injury or neglect, torture, mutilation, repeated patterns of abuse or death should be brought to the attention of Deputy District Attorney Lisa Pearson, who is handling animal-abuse cases for the office and will be available around-the-clock for questions from law enforcement, according to the protocol.

The guidelines come two months after a 26-year-old homeless man was charged with a municipal infraction for killing his 4-month-old beagle in a Boulder apartment by taping the puppy’s mouth shut.

Kenneth Gookin appeared in Boulder Municipal Court to resolve his case before the District Attorney’s Office could get involved.

Had prosecutors known about the case before it was settled, District Attorney Stan Garnett said they would have seriously considered filing felony animal-cruelty charges against Gookin, who taped his dog’s mouth shut and locked her in a bathroom because she had chewed up his phone charger.

The double-jeopardy rule precluded the District Attorney’s Office from bringing new charges.

But Garnett said he hopes the new animal-cruelty protocol and liaison will prevent similar situations in the future and make the county more consistent in its handling of animal-abuse cases.

“Proper enforcement of Colorado’s animal cruelty laws requires education of the community about Colorado law, prompt reporting of incidents of possible abuse, thorough investigation by law enforcement and proper charging by the District Attorney’s Office,” according to the new protocol.

Education and cooperation are especially necessary in light of the state’s relatively new statute establishing a felony charge for aggravated animal abuse, Garnett said.

In the eight years that the beefed-up felony statute has been on the state’s books — animal cruelty used to be a misdemeanor in Colorado — Boulder County has charged only five people under it, and Broomfield County has charged just one.

Last spring, University of Colorado student Abby Toll, 20, was charged with felony animal abuse after she was arrested on suspicion of taping her boyfriend’s dog upside-down to a refrigerator. Toll’s case is scheduled to go to trial in April.

“We want to make these cases a priority because they matter to the community on a lot of different levels,” Garnett said. “There seems to be a correlation between people who abuse animals and people who abuse other people.”