The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has a new Animal Cruelty Report Form on its website to help notify the county’s Animal Cruelty Task Force of suspected animal abuse. 

Anyone who has witnessed animal cruelty can fill out the request form and remain anonymous if they choose. The form has a space to report the address of the incident, to describe what was witnessed and to upload photos if they are available. There is also information on what the physical and environmental signs of animal cruelty are. 

“We know that animal cruelty often leads to other crimes,” said Jayme Fuller, BCSO’s public information officer. “So if there’s an animal that’s being abused, or that is undergoing a cruelty-type situation, a lot of times if there are kids in the home. And then the kids are also dealing with that or if there’s elderly in the home, elderly are also dealing with that. So it’s a really huge deal.”

This was the exact scenario at a Cedar Crest residence BCSO investigated in January that included a severe case of animal abuse and elder neglect. After finding numerous animals—dead and alive—on the property, BCSO filed 19 charges of animal cruelty against 74-year-old Deborah Battaglino. 

“We want to have a portal now for the community to be able to report animal cruelty to us,” Fuller said. “Our task force wants to know about it and we want to be able to make contact with these people to see if we can save any of these animals’ lives and try to ensure the safety of animals in Bernalillo County. This portal is going to be another way for the community to reach out to our detectives directly and send any information that they might have.”