**HUMBLE, TX**FULL WEEK DISCOUNT

Course Location: Humble Police Dept., 310 Bender Ave, Humble TX 77338

Preregistration: Once class minimum is met, invoices will be emailed out for the course cost of $750 /person.

Course IS NOT FREE.

Day 1-2 Animal Cruelty Investigations

Are you just starting out investigating animal cruelty? Do you need a refresher course to ensure you're handling cases in the best manner possible?

In this course, we will discuss animal cruelty investigations from call out to prosecution. Some of the topics that will be covered include the 4th amendment, plain view doctrine, seizure warrants, the adjudication process, and much more! Various situational examples will be discussed so students will be able to better determine when education is the best route or when to prosecute. Day two will end with students working mock animal cruelty case investigations so that they can hone the skills learned in class. This course is designed to provide students with the basic skills, understanding, and critical thinking to be able to work animal cruelty investigations from start to finish.

Day 3 Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue is something that can affect anyone working in the animal care and control field. Knowing how to deal with the various forms of trauma is critical to anyone in this field.

This class will spend time learning how trauma will negatively affect not only the officer but the family as well. Students will gain an understanding on how to survive and thrive many different forms of trauma. Topics discussed include: psychological health, depression, suicide rates of animal care and control workers, crisis intervention, and an introduction to the core concepts of crisis intervention and preparation for before, during and after a critical incident regarding animal care. Finally, we will discuss how to be able to move forward in with healthy habits and abilities to deal with stress long term.

Day 4 FTO for the ACO

Training new Animal Control Officers can be a daunting task as our field continues to develop and evolve, yet there remains a lack of consistency with training protocol. This class will focus on developing a uniform, yet customizable training guideline which can fit within most all departments and agencies. The training guideline follows a basic four week FTO program which will cover all the needed basic information for anyone beginning with an agency. The objective in this class will be techniques on how to teach to different learning types, how to focus on what is important when working within a strict timeline, and the customizable timeline itself. At the completion of the class, a usb drive will be provided to each attendee, which will be pre-loaded with forms to take back to individual agencies to create ACO FTO programs.

Day 5 Urban Wildlife & Herpetology Familiarization

This course is 4 hours of Urban Wildlife of Texas in the morning and 4 hours of Herpetology Familiarization in the afternoon.

Tuition to this course includes one set of snake tongs and one snake bucket for the student to keep! These tongs are made of the highest quality material and with both the proper safe restraint of the animal as well as the comfort and safety of the animal in mind! All snake equipment used is by Animal Equipment by Stoney!

Urban Wildlife of Texas: With the continuing urban expansion of most Texas cities encroaching natural habitats, human encounters with native wildlife are becoming more frequent. Many animals can adapt and even thrive in the presence of humans, which will eventually lead to nuisance complaints and possible zoonotic issues. Identifying some of the diets, behaviors and habitats of some common urban wildlife in Texas will help explain their part in the ecosystem and how to discourage their presence in residential neighborhoods.

This class will cover how the reproductive cycle and migratory patterns can impact nuisance calls and will also cover the safe capture and handling of indigenous species.

As our primary goal is education, ACO's will learn how to guide the public toward a peaceful coexistence with wildlife and we will also examine how to make a residential area less conducive to wildlife invasion instead of adopting a "catch and kill" or "catch and relocate" mentality.

Rare, threatened and endangered species will also be discussed along with resources available for rehabilitation of wild animals.

Herpetology Familiarization: This class will cover proper identification of indigenous snakes, lizards, turtles, and alligators, as well as cover safe capture and handling techniques. A hands-on block of instruction with live animals, including non-venomous snakes, is included.

As our primary goal is education, ACO's will learn how to guide the public toward a peaceful coexistence with wildlife and we will also examine how to make a residential area less conducive to wildlife invasion instead of adopting a "catch and kill" or "Catch and relocate" mentality.

Proper husbandry of snakes and other reptiles will be covered at an introductory level as well as animal cruelty as it pertains to herp species.

* Please note live animals will be brought to class