Wisconsin law requires all humane officers to be trained and certified within a year of their appointment, whether they are hired as employees of a county, city, village or town, or work as independent contractors. The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection offers this training once a year, in cooperation with the American Humane Association. In 2010, the training will be held:

October 4-8, 2010
7:30-5 p.m. daily
at the
Crowne Plaza
4402 E. Washington Ave.
Madison

Who should attend
All humane officers appointed within the past year and not yet certified must attend. Law enforcement officers responsible for investigating animal cruelty complaints should attend. Anyone will want to attend who is interested in learning a systematic approach to animal cruelty investigations and/or becoming a humane officer.

Course content

• Role of the animal investigator
• Rules of evidence
• Rules of search and seizure
• Civil liability
• Wisconsin law
• Facility standards
• Evaluation of cruelty
• Nutrition
• Body conditioning and scoring
• Pet shop investigations
• Photography and sketching
• Crime scene procedure and collection of evidence
  
• Interview and interrogation
• Report writing
• Courtoom testimony
• Crisis intervention/officer safety

Instructors
Your instructors will be veterinarians, attorneys and law officers with years of experience in investigating animal cases. You will also get hands-on experience in the barns at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Certification
After successfully completing the course and passing the written examination, you will be eligible for certification by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection as a humane officer. There is a $25 testing fee in addition to the tuition, and if you apply for certification after passing the exam, there is a another $25 fee.

Law enforcement officers can apply the course toward their 24-hour recertification training requirement.

Cost

• Tuition: $500, check to be made out to Law Enforcement Training Institute and mailed with your registration form

• Testing fee: $25, check to be made out to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and paid while you are attending the course

• Certification fee: $25, check to be made out to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and mailed with your application for certification after you complete the course.

PLEASE DO NOT COMBINE ALL THE FEES IN ONE CHECK. IF YOU DO SO, YOU WILL RECEIVE THE CHECK BACK AND NEED TO SEND A DIFFERENT ONE.

Note: Tuition covers instruction and materials. Lodging and meals are not included.

Registration
We are not able to offer online registration, but you can download a form to complete and mail with your $500 check to the Law Enforcement Training Institute.

Lodging
The Crowne Plaza Hotel-East Towne will hold a block of rooms until Friday, Sept. 18 at $99 a night. To reserve a room, call 608-244-4703 or toll-free 877-227-6963 and mention the Law Enforcement Training Institute/Humane Officer Training.

Law Enforcement Training Institute
The Law Enforcement Training Institute, affiliated with the University of Missouri-Columbia, has been providing state-of-the-art professional training to criminal justice practitioners since the 1940s. In 1979, the Institute became one of the original State Certified Law Enforcement Training Academies in Missouri. Since that time, the Institute has taken a leadership role in providing basic and advanced certified academies to law enforcement officers and continuing professional education programs to a wide, multi-disciplinary spectrum of the criminal justice system.

For more information
If you have questions about payment or registration, please contact the Law Enforcement Training
Institute at 1-800-825-6505.

Information about Madison
The Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau
offers information about events, attractions, and dining in and around Madison.

If you have other questions about the training or Wisconsin humane officer law, please call State Humane Officer Dr. Yvonne Bellay, 608-224-4888 or email.