HOUSTON – The Houston Humane Society is known for rescuing and rehabilitating animals all across Harris County.
The shelter is making a big investment in the form of a forensic veterinarian.
She’s the first and only one in her field locally and is helping animal investigators get justice for pets all across the area.
Dr. Jennifer Janssen is a true asset.
The forensic veterinarian spent 13 years as an emergency vet before she saw a need to get her master’s in veterinary forensics.
“Where veterinarians are right now is where human medicine was in the 60′s and now veterinarians are needing to move forward and start the process of training veterinarian students,” Janssen said.
Janssen’s been with the Houston Humane Society for about a year and a half now and she’s truly in a league of her own.
“I assist in providing autopsies and forensic exams on live animals that have an open animal cruelty investigation ongoing,” she said.
Janssen helps animal cruelty investigators on the front lines build a case and hold those responsible accountable.
“If an animal cruelty investigator identifies that this will be a cruelty case they contact the Houston Humane society, the forensic team,” she said. “If we have a deceased victim then we do and proceed with an autopsy, and if they are alive, we process them using forensic exams and we provide continued care and monitoring for those patients,”
She says many cruelty cases are unfortunately not isolated incidents.
“Many animal cruelty victims, they have human family members that are also victims of cruelty at the same time and I’ve seen many domestic violence cases along with the animal cruelty cases in my exams room. I’ve seen child abuse, it comes in with the animal abuse,” she said.
As a pet lover and dog mom to three, Janssen admits the job, at times, can take its toll.
“Some of the most dramatic cases involve abandonment and where our victims have starved to death,” she said. “Forty-five percent of our cruelty cases with deceased victims are starvation cases and within those 57 percent of those starvation cases are animals that have been abandoned, left in a confined area where they couldn’t escape.”
Janssen said because she is the only one of her kind locally, the Houston Humane Society has allowed her to open her doors to all local law enforcement, even if it’s just for a question.
Janssen says moving forward, the Houston Humane Society also wants to provide on-scene support for investigations at some of the cruelty scenes.