Animal Activist Annemarie Lucas

Celebrities, Celebrity Q&A, People
on October 26, 2003

I very much admire Annemarie Lucas on the show Animal Precinct on Animal Planet. What can you tell me about her?

—Coty O., Iowa

For the last seven years, she has been a special investigator for Humane Law Enforcement at the AmericanSociety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Lucas, who began her career in animal welfare as an animal shelter volunteer, lives in New York City with her husband and their four rescued cats. She is one of the agents followed by cameras on Animal Precinct as they investigate crimes against the Big Apple’s animals. “The most common cases that we investigate involve neglect and intentional abuse,” she says. “But even though most of the complaints we receive have similar themes, every day is different, challenging and often times surprising. You never really know what you are going to come into when you arrive at a scene.” Lucas may answer one call about an undernourished Rottweiler and another about a dead horse in Brooklyn. “My most rewarding case has to be Cherokee,” she says of the dog found with broken legs and ribs. The owner was found guilty of abuse. And Cherokee? “He is now a spoiled rotten and very happy dog.”