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Information About

Animal Precinct




  Format Reality Television
  Runtime 60 minutes
  Narrated Michael Madsen
  Country United States
  Network Animal Planet
  First Aired 2001


''Animal Precinct'' is a Television program on Animal Planet . It takes place in New York City , home to "eight million people, five million pets, {Link without Title} 15 animal cruelty agents with full police powers," as Narrator Michael Madsen says during the show's opening credits. As of 2006, HLE now has 20 Agents with full police powers for the entire city.

''Animal Precinct'' is a type of '').

The show is filmed locally by crews from Anglia Television , edited in the UK and shown on Discovery Channel networks worldwide.


SHOW HISTORY

The show debuted in 2001 , with 10 animal cruelty agents. At first it was a half-hour show; later it was extended to a full hour.


Season one

Season one was sixteen episodes long. The Television Pilot was quite different from subsequent episodes, as it focused on Special Investigator Annemarie Lucas , at times away from her work, for example at her police locker, where she discussed briefly how she felt about carrying a gun.


"Animal Precinct at Ground Zero"

On October 12, 2001, from 9 to 10PM Eastern Time , Animal Planet aired a special focused on the work to rescue the many animals that were affected by the fall of the World Trade Center towers on September 11 .


Subsequent seasons

Animal Precinct has run for five seasons so far. Season two was 17 episodes long, season three was 15 episodes long, and season four was 9 episodes long, plus one special that showed the happy endings of many rescued animals from previous seasons. The fifth season began airing in 2006 .

Beginning with season four, five new investigators joined the HLE team, resulting in a change in the opening credits from "10 Animal Cruelty Agents" to "15 Animal Cruelty Agents".


CAST, PAST AND PRESENT

The ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement (HLE) officers can be classified as Special Agent or Special Investigator. Many HLE officers are identified by name on-camera; however, some are not, instead spoken of only by initial (most notably "Special Agent M" and "Special Agent Q") with their faces blurred when on-camera as a way to protect their identities so that they can do Undercover work for the ASPCA .
  • Joe Pentangelo

  • Kristi Adams

  • John De La Torre

  • Diane DiGiacomo

  • Adam Gankiewicz

  • Bob Clark

  • Paul Lai

  • Annemarie Lucas

  • Mark MacDonald

  • Richard Raheb

  • Peter Rivas

  • Paul Romano

  • Henry Ruiz

  • Richard Ryan

  • Tina Salaks

  • Joann Sandano

  • Timothy Stack

  • Michael Tietje (retired in 2006)


Special Agent Henry Ruiz was known as "Special Agent H" during the show's early seasons but revealed his true identity in 2005 when he ceased performing undercover work. Ruiz's "unmasking" was the subject of a series of special episodes of ''Animal Precinct'', in which footage of Ruiz's past rescues was shown for the first time without the facial blurring, as well as footage from his last major undercover operation for the ASPCA (reconnaissance and surveillance of an area holding roosters bred for Cock Fighting ) with Ruiz demonstrating and explaining his undercover techniques on-camera. However, completed episodes filmed while Ruiz was still "Special Agent H" still have his face blurred whenever he appears on-screen.


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