Alaqua Animal Refuge activisits partnered with State Attorney Bill Eddins Thursday in an animal abuse investigative seminar held at Northwest Florida State College in Fort Walton Beach.

The training is the first of its kind in the area and attracted more than 100 law enforcement officials, animal control officers, and prosecutors from across the region. The goal is to help law enforcement build better animal cruelty cases.

In August, Walton County Sheriff's officials seized a miniature horse named Champ that was 170 pounds underweight and nearly dead. Two months later, Washington County Sheriff's officials found more than three dozen dead greyhounds in a kennel at Ebro Greyhound Park.

The two cases were troubling for Alaqua Animal Refuge founder Laurie Hood. She approached local prosecutors about more training for those who handle animal abuse cases.

"It grew from a small idea for us in Walton County into something that went district wide and later on opened up to the next two districts over; so we were training everyone from Pensacola all the way to Tallahassee today."

Thursday Hood and State Attorney Bill Eddins hosted their first-ever training seminar. Topics ranged from search and seizure to collecting evidence.

One of the speakers was Sherry Ramsey. She is the Director of Prosecutions for the Humane Society of the United States and shared her expertise with the audience. "You need to treat these cases just like any other case you investigate. It's important to handle them just like any other crime that's committed against a person."

Their goal is to not only see more of these case prosecuted, but the have a succesful verdict.

"Finding justice for the true victim of the case, which is the animal. That is really important to remember throughout the course of all these charges and trials, that we don't forget that", says Ramsey.