Nearly 17,000 Animals Impacted by Department Activity Last Year
BOSTON, March 23, 2026 – The MSPCA-Angell is unveiling new plans to build on its humane law enforcement philosophy as the organization also recognizes major milestones reached in 2025, it announced today.
“We’ve had uniformed officers working to keep animals in Massachusetts safe for more than a century, but a couple of years ago, we reexamined our Law Enforcement program in the hopes of making it more reflective of modern reality,” explained Chris Schindler, MSPCA-Angell Law Enforcement director.
“As part of that shift, we’ve added resources to give officers the ability to deploy a variety of tools to help people and their pets stay together in situations in which that’s appropriate, while reserving enforcement actions like seizures and animal cruelty charges for cases where no other intervention would be possible,” he elaborated.
In 2025—Schindler’s first full year on the job—MSPCA-Angell Law Enforcement provided assistance and resources on more than 400 cases to help improve conditions for animals and their people.
“We were extremely busy last year, and it set an incredible base for us to build on in 2026!”
Bringing Justice to Thousands of Animals
In 2025, MSPCA-Angell Law Enforcement fielded 2,334 calls that resulted in 714 new complaints investigated by officers. Animal cruelty charges were filed in more than two dozen of those complaints.
“It’s a balance. We take a resource-based approach to keep a greater number of pets with their families, which affords us the ability to act faster on cases that require enforcement action like prosecution and removal of animals from situations of neglect and abuse,” Schindler detailed.
Just under 17,000 animals were impacted by MSPCA-Angell Law Enforcement interventions in 2025, including nearly 850 that were seized or surrendered.
“Those animals were removed from situations where their wellbeing was in jeopardy and brought to our facilities where they got any medical or other care they needed, not to mention love and attention,” he added.
“Obviously it’s a huge number that strains our resources, but we’re always going to do everything possible to secure the best outcomes we can for animals in need.”
Going the Distance in 2026
To help even more animals this year, the MSPCA-Angell is growing its Law Enforcement department.
“We’re going to add officers to help cover some of our largest regions—Western Mass. and the Boston-area,” said Schindler, who noted that the organization is also investing in several new vehicles.
“This growth is thanks to grant funding and donors who recognize the importance of humane law enforcement,” he added. “We want to continue to expand our team and create more safety nets for animals, but that’s not possible without additional support.”
Those who would like to donate to help fund the MSPCA-Angell’s humane law enforcement work are asked to give at mspca.org/justice.
