Animal Cops Detroit

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Animal Cops Detroit
Genre	Reality television
Narrated by	John Lurie, Rodd Houston
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Animal Planet

Animal Cops Detroit is a television reality programme on Animal Planet. It takes place in Detroit, Michigan, home of the Michigan Humane Society, and focuses on the exploits of five animal cruelty field agents and the staff physicians and animal evaluators at the MHS. The series is one of Animal Planet's top-rated shows; it is part of an "umbrella rotation" of shows known collectively as "Animal Planet Heroes", along with shows set in New York, New York (Animal Precinct), Houston, Texas (Animal Cops Houston), Miami, Florida (Miami Animal Police), San Francisco, California (Animal Cops San Francisco), and Phoenix, Arizona (Animal Planet Heroes: Phoenix).

1 Show history
2 Controversy
3 Crossovers
4 Awards
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Show history

The show debuted in 2002 and followed the cases investigated by a quartet of MHS cruelty investigators, Mark Ramos and Debby MacDonald (on the city's west side) and Shawn Hairston and Keven Jones (on the city's east side). Jones left the MHS during the show's first season and was replaced by former rescue driver Mike Dowe Jr., who became Hairston's partner. Another rescue driver, David McLeod, joined the team in 2004 as an investigator.

MHS Dispatcher Max Sharpe sometimes fills in for agents on rescue calls or goes out into the field when especially large teams are needed.

The hospital staff includes doctors Sherine Cece and Patricia Madsen, as well as evaluator Jan Ramos and several other technicians and evaluators.

Actor John Lurie narrated most of the early episodes. He has since been replaced by voice actor Rodd Houston beginning in 2004.

First-run production ended in 2006, though the show continues to be shown in reruns as part of the "Animal Planet Heroes" umbrella.

[edit] Controversy

Due to an extraordinarily large number of pit bull dog fights originating in and around the Detroit area, the MHS has a policy of animal euthanasia for any pit bulls they confiscate or find abandoned. Also, due to limited resources, dogs with severe behavior problems (most notably food aggression) and cats who have turned irretrievably feral are almost always slated for euthanasia because of either insuitability for adoption or potential liability in adopting the animal out to the general public. This leads to a significant number of cases featured on Animal Cops Detroit ending in the animal being humanely euthanized, which has caused consternation among the show's viewers and critics. In a 2005 special featuring some of the Animal Cops' "most memorable cases", several of the agents dealt with this issue head-on, noting that no one likes having to put an animal down, particularly animals that the agents and the MHS staff had worked so hard to save. The case of the Great Dane Atlas, a dog with a severe imbedded collar neck wound, was featured in this particular episode; Atlas, a dog who seemed to bear even the horrible wound on his neck from a heavy tow chain with good-natured grace, turned vicious and "scary" (according to Debby MacDonald) during his behavior evaluation when he attacked the fake hand evaluator Jan Ramos inserted into his food bowl with such force that he tore the plastic covering on the appendage. "People tell me, 'I could have taken care of him,'" MacDonald noted, "but...are you always going to be there?"

[edit] Crossovers

Both Animal Cops Houston and Animal Cops Detroit are produced by the same production company, Anglia Television, and the two show's styles are very similar, down to the editing, in-show music, credits, and opening themes. In 2005, the staff of the Houston SPCA--the subject of Animal Cops Houston--helped with the rescue of animals from the wreckage of Hurricane Rita along the Texas Gulf Coast. Debby MacDonald and Mark Ramos came down from Detroit to assist their fellow investigators in the recovery; their contributions were featured in a special episode of Animal Cops Houston in 2006.

[edit] Awards

The show won "Outstanding Reality Program" at the 2003 Genesis Awards, an award show sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States that highlights media contributions to Animal Rights causes throughout the world. Investigator Shawn Hairston, accepting the award for his fellow investigators, told the audience that "We are warriors in this war against animal cruelty."[1]