DrG:
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All right, so this next guest has been here at the Junction before and
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is a friend of mine, Laura Koivula.
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Thank you for being here.
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Laura Koivula: It's my pleasure.
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DrG: For those people in the audience
that don't know who you are, can
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you let them know what you do?
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Laura Koivula: Yes.
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So my name's Laura Koivula.
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I am the director of Animal Crimes and
Investigations for Humane World for
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Animals, for the Animal Rescue Team there.
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So on the Animal Crimes and
Investigations team, we have four case
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managers and myself, and we assist
law enforcement across the country
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with animal crimes investigations.
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DrG: And your talk today was about animal
cruelty and family violence, correct?
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Laura Koivula: Yes.
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DrG: Excellent.
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So can you give our audience a
little bit of, let them know what,
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what your discussion was about?
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Laura Koivula: Yeah, so I talked
about what we call the link.
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So for those that don't
know what the link is,
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It's decades of research now that show
the connection between animal abuse
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or animal violence, crimes towards
animals and crimes towards humans.
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So animal cruelty and human violence.
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DrG: I think that, um, you know,
there are a lot of different
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ways that animal cruelty and
human violence can exist, right?
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Like it's, everybody thinks about
one thing in particular, whether it
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be, uh, domestic violence or so, but
there are a lot of different things
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that are part of the link, right?
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Laura Koivula: Yeah, for sure.
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And I think that initially was the most
heavily researched was, intimate partner
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violence and animal cruelty, which
there is a well established link now.
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But we also see violent crimes
associated with things like
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organized animal fighting.
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And, animal sexual abuse is
often linked with child sexual
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abuse or child pornography.
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So, yeah, the link exists in, in pretty
much all facets of animal crimes.
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DrG: Yeah, I was mentioning before
about how I've had a couple of cases
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that involved hoarders and it was
hoarders that had either an elderly
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person in the home or a young child.
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Mm-hmm.
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So it's kind of like the same, almost
like the same neglect or the same
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violence that they do on animals.
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They do on people.
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Laura Koivula: Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So we've, we've seen the same thing.
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I saw the same thing in my career as
well as pretty much everybody on my team,
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and I'm sure a lot of your listeners.
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Um, in the neglect cases for animals,
we see children, both biological
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and adopted or foster children being
neglected and abused, similar to the
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animals in the home, but then also we see
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vulnerable adults that for one reason
or another require a caretaker.
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And so that defendant or suspect
is also neglecting the vulnerable
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adults in the home as well.
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DrG: And I think something important
that, that you also mentioned is
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that there is no gender or culture
or anything that you know, that
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the abuser can be anybody, right?
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Laura Koivula: Absolutely.
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Yeah.
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And I think that's something that gets a
little lost, 'cause most of the stories
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we hear about are male perpetrators.
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But I talked about some case examples
today where the perpetrators were in
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fact, female, and they committed heinous
abuse, not just neglect of children,
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but also sexual abuse of children.
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So, yeah, it's really important
to note that not only does
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this happen across genders, but
also in domestic relationship.
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Right.
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So, um, L-G-B-T-Q relationships,
heterosexual relationships, parent
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child relationships, child to
elderly parent, like any, any
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sort of relationship, there's no
parameters on this type of crime.
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DrG: I think
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that also it is important
then, because it, it crosses
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from humans to animals, right?
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To involve human health
professionals in this.
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Laura Koivula: Absolutely.
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I think it's really essential that
we build relationships with the other
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agencies in our jurisdictions and
across jurisdictions specifically.
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Those agencies that have resources like
child advocacy organizations like Casa and
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DCPS or whatever your jurisdiction
calls their adult protective
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and Child Protective Services.
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They have resources that we don't have
access to, and we also, as humane law
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enforcement, we gain access to properties
and homes that may not be on their radar.
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And so, you know, there's an
essential cross and vice versa.
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So building those relationships
is really important.
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DrG: Anybody that's listening that
wants to learn more about the link
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and animal cruelty and for, if there
are investigators out there that kind
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of feel lost because they wanna do
more and they don't know how, what
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resources would you recommend for them?
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Laura Koivula: Yeah.
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Well, if you have a current investigation
where you're looking for help on a
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specific, uh, case you're working on, they
can always reach out to our team through
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the email animal cruelty@humaneworld.org.
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The National Link Coalition has got
great resources if you're looking
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to review like the, the research
and documentation on the link.
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And HumanePro also has a lot of webinars,
short webinars for humane law enforcement
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if they're looking to learn more
about any of the animal crime topics.
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DrG: This has been great information.
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Overall it, it affects everybody
and it's really important for not
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just veterinarians and not just law
enforcement and just not humane agents
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for everybody to know about this.
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So thank you so much for your presentation
and thank you for what you do.
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Laura Koivula: Thank you
so much for having me.