A leading expert in animal cruelty laws and animal behavior will be giving a free speech at the Hawaiian Humane Society at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Dr. Randall Lockwood is the senior vice president for Anti-Cruelty and Legislative Initiatives with the American Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals. Among the topics he'll discuss are animal fighting, animal hoarding, animal CSI, why dogs and cats do the things they do and also an update on Michael Vick's fighting dogs.

Prior to his joining the ASPCA, Lockwood was vice president at the Humane Society of the United States from 1984 to 2005.

He has spent more than 30 years working with humane societies and law-enforcement agencies, serving as an expert on the interactions between people and animals. He has testified in numerous trials involving cruelty to animals or the treatment of animals in the context of other crimes, including dog fighting, child abuse, domestic violence and homicide. His efforts to increase public and professional awareness of the connection between animal abuse and other forms of violence were profiled in an award-winning 1999 British Broadcast Corporation/Arts & Entertainment Network documentary entitled "The Cruelty Connection."