CITY ATTORNEY DATA SHOWS SEATTLE PRIORITIES
Majority of City Attorney Animal Cruelty Referrals Are Off-Leash Related
Animal Cruelty and Negligence Charges Largely Result in Fines
Cases referred to the City Attorney’s Office (CAO) generally originate with enforcement officers. Citizens are aware of the police as their most highly visible representatives, but referrals can also originate with regulatory inspectors and field officers in other departments.
Law enforcement from the Seattle Animal Shelter and the Seattle Police Department can refer animal cruelty and negligence cases to the City Attorney's Office for prosecution as either civil infractions or criminal misdemeanors. (Felony charges are referred to the King County Prosecutor’s Office). There is a great deal of documentation and proof required for a case to go forward. Animal cruelty cases must compete with other priorities at the CAO as do all cases.
We requested City Attorney data showing the referrals and final resolutions of animal cruelty and neglect charges from 2016 to 2022. Below are our findings based on this data.
Less than one hundred cruelty and negligence cases are referred to the City Attorney's Office per year. When compared to the cruelty complaints received by the Seattle Animal Shelter, these referrals constitute less than ten percent of the complaint totals.
When we look at the actual referrals, however, the use of the term "animal cruelty and neglect" is interesting. (It is important to remember that these are the City Attorney's case types, not the Seattle Animal Shelter’s case types.)
From 2016 to 2022, 270 out of 621 charges referred to the City Attorney’s Office involved off-leash issues, implying a heavy emphasis on parks enforcement. This is approximately 43 percent of the total charges. During the same time period, only 86, or 13 percent, of referred charges were labeled as negligence or cruelty-related. This time period includes the 2020 seizure of over 200 animals in a single home where there was severe neglect, abuse, and dead animals onsite.
A review of the resolution of charges during this time period shows that most were filed by citation, meaning they were subject to the civil code and resolved with the payment of fines. The majority of the resolved charges were off-leash related and, of those, almost all were filed by citation.
Of the negligence or cruelty related charges, about a third were filed as misdemeanors and almost half were filed as citations.
The largest number of declined cases were those related to negligence or cruelty.
