GREAT FALLS — Two large-scale animal-hoarding cases brought roughly 200 dogs through the doors of one Montana animal shelter.
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Experiences like those are part of the reason professionals from across the state gathered in Great Falls for specialized training on how animal-cruelty cases are investigated, documented and eventually prepared for court.
Tucker Chase, shelter director for the Bitter Root Humane Association in Hamilton, made the more than three-hour trip to Great Falls after dealing firsthand with major hoarding cases.
“We’ve had several different instances over the summer of two large-scale hoarding cases,” Chase said. “One in our county and one in a neighboring county.”
According to Chase, those two cases alone brought roughly 200 dogs to the shelter during the summer of 2025.
The challenge is compounded by how animal-control responsibilities are handled in Ravalli County.
“We don't have an animal control for our whole county, but we're the only animal shelter in the Bitterroot Valley,” Chase said. “So, all those animals come to us by default.”
Chase said the sheriff’s department handles animal-control calls in the county. Because large-scale cruelty and hoarding cases are relatively uncommon, investigators may not regularly encounter the procedures required when one does happen.
“A lot of them don't know how to move forward with that,” Chase said. “How to write those warrants, how to do those certain seizure procedures, all that kind of stuff.”
Building experience before the next case
That experience gap is part of what the two-day training in Great Falls was designed to address.
Cascade County was selected for the Animal Legal Defense Fund's Collaborative Response Project, bringing together law enforcement officers, prosecutors, veterinarians, animal-control officers, shelters and other animal-welfare professionals.
The training focused on how those different disciplines can work together through an animal-cruelty investigation.
Jessica Becker, an animal control officer for the City of Great Falls, said the collaboration is particularly valuable locally.
“We have a lot of animal welfare, animal care individuals in the City of Great Falls and Cascade County,” Becker said. “Getting everybody together and moving in the same direction is definitely beneficial.”
The second day focused on veterinary forensics, including how injuries and conditions are documented, how evidence is collected and how chain of custody is maintained.
Those steps can become important if evidence collected from an animal ultimately becomes part of a criminal case.
For Chase, one of the biggest takeaways was documentation.
“Documenting was huge,” Chase said.
The training also covered search warrants, animal seizures, evidence preservation and preparing information that can later be presented in court.
For agencies that may not encounter major animal-cruelty cases regularly, the goal is to build that experience before the next case arrives.
