Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Cat and dog scavenging at indoor forensic scenes: strategies for documentation and detection.
- Journal:
- Forensic science, medicine, and pathology
- Year:
- 2024
- Authors:
- Indra, Lara et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Physical Anthropology
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
This study looks at how pets, like cats and dogs, can scavenge on human remains in indoor settings, especially when they have access to their deceased owners. This scavenging can complicate forensic investigations, making it harder to determine things like the cause of death or how long the person has been dead. The researchers reviewed existing literature and presented seven new cases from Switzerland where pets were involved in scavenging. They also created a guide to help investigators systematically collect data in these situations, as distinguishing between the types of damage caused by cats versus dogs can be tricky. Overall, the study emphasizes the need for better documentation and understanding of how pets can affect forensic work.
Abstract
Vertebrate scavenging on human remains is occasionally observed at indoor forensic scenes, especially when pets have access to the body and their deceased owners were socially distanced. Pets feeding on corpses have implications for the forensic investigation, e.g. for trauma analysis and the assessment of the cause of death, the estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI), or the recovery of the complete set of remains. Documentation of potential scavenging in forensic practice is tenuous and needs to be improved in order to be able to use the information for future casework. Investigators need to be aware of the alterations pets can cause to human remains and how these affect further analyses. Following a combined literature review for cat and canine scavenging, we present seven new cases from Switzerland with cat and/or dog involvement. We then created a flowchart guide for a systematic collection of data to use at indoor forensic scenes of suspected scavenging. Our literature review revealed the challenge in discriminating between scavenging by domestic cats and dogs, based on the appearance of the lesions alone. Furthermore, the information that is often routinely collected in indoor fatalities with potential scavenging activity is not sufficient to perform this separation. To provide a practical basis for cat and canine scavenging and its differentiation, we summarise strategies and present a flowchart to use in forensic casework of suspected indoor scavenging.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38103116/