The PAACC
The PAACC
About the PAACC
"Promoting Professional Animal Incident
Response and Investigation"
The Pennsylvania Academy for Animal Care and Control (PAACC), formerly known as the Animal Crime Institute, was founded in 2013 by Ms. Colleen Shelly, a retired Pennsylvania State Police Trooper, with a deep passion for animal welfare and professional animal incident response. A privately owned, independent training and education company, the PAACC is dedicated to the promotion of professional animal incident response and investigation. For more than a decade, the PAACC has been providing education, training and consulting services to numerous agencies and entities responsible for animal incident response, investigation and animal welfare.
The PAACC is the first company of its kind dedicated specifically to the unique challenges of animal incident response in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which is unlike any other state in the United States. The manner in which animal incidents are responded to and investigated and who can enforce our various animal-related laws, regulations, and ordinances is a foundational educational point for almost every class and program facilitated by the PAACC.
Ms. Shelly collaborates with a large network of colleagues, associates, attorneys, law enforcement, and animal welfare professionals to create course curriculum and to consult on various animal incident response requests for assistance.
How it Began
Ms. Colleen Shelly, the founder and owner of the PAACC, is a graduate of West Chester University with a B.S. in Criminal Justice and a minor in Political Science. She retired honorably from the Pennsylvania State Police in 2013 at the rank of Trooper First Class. After identifying a serious education gap in the field of animal incident response, she dedicated much of her law enforcement career to animal crimes and animal law related issues. She served in the Patrol and Criminal Investigation Units in Troop K, Philadelphia/Skippack, as a Criminal Law and Animal Crimes Investigations instructor in the Bureau of Training and Education, a member of the Tactical Mounted Unit, and finally as PSP's first Animal Crimes Investigator, a position within the Bureau of Criminal Investigation/Special Investigations Division. During her tenure with the Pennsylvania State Police, she developed the first ever Basic Animal Cruelty and Animal Law course (40 hours) offered to federal, state, and municipal police officers. Ms. Shelly was the pioneer in providing law enforcement specific training in animal cruelty investigation and incident response by the Pennsylvania State Police with the inception of the Animal Cruelty Liaison program.
With a vision for changing the way these investigations are perceived and handled due to modern trends and changes in the field, she decided to pass the torch in her position within PSP and move into the private sector by founding the Animal Crime Institute LLC, which is now known as the Pennsylvania Academy for Animal Care and Control. She has been instrumental in changing the way animal cruelty, animal control and Dog Law complaints are handled by many police departments across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Hundreds of police officers, first responders, animal health investigators, Animal Control Officers, Dog Wardens and other animal welfare professionals and prosecutors have attended the PAACC’s training programs or have been assisted by or consulted with Ms. Shelly on various animal welfare and animal control issues facing their departments and the communities they serve.
Ms. Colleen Shelly