num_pages: 268
description: Veterinarians are an inherently compassionate group of people. In addition to the concerns cited above, the distress of becoming involved in the aftermath of an act of animal cruelty can be difficult to bear. As with any medical procedure, becoming highly knowledgeable about the task at hand makes it all the easier to perform. Although no textbook can remove the sting of witnessing the evidence of a heinous act of violence, an informed and clinical approach to addressing such an act may reduce the measure of pain it causes to the veterinarian, to the victim's owner, and to the community in which the act occurred.Forensic Investigation of Animal Cruelty is meant to be a clinical and comprehensive guide for veterinarians who are faced - either voluntarily or inadvertently - with the task of initiating or participating in an animal-cruelty investigation. This book will define acts of cruelty to animals, introduce the legal processes of investigation and prosecution, orient the veterinarian to the task of gathering evidence and creating documents and presenting them properly to the legal system, outline procedures for examining victims, and illustrate the most common clinical presentations of both living and deceased victims.The text focuses primarily on dogs and cats because they are the species most often affected by the types of cruelty discussed hear, but much of this information can be easily applied to other domestic mammalian species. Although the types of cruelty that may accompany the commercial breeding and sales of dogs and cats are not directly addressed, some of the circumstances of those types of cruelty do appear here, particularly in the chapter on neglect. Because most veterinary practitioners are more experienced and comfortable with the examination of living animals and because there already exists more literature addressing evaluation of injuries to surviving patients, greater emphasis has been placed on post-mortem than pre-mortem findings.The variety of acts of cruelty to animals is al limitless as the human imagination. You will not find an exact protocol for evaluating each complex case here, but you will find step-by-step procedures for examining the animal victim, evaluating her injuries, documenting your findings, preserving the evidence, and presenting the case to the legal system in a manner that will ensure that you have made a qualified effort to address a horrendous criminal act.I hope that you will have no need for this book in your veterinary career, but I doubt that will be the case. I believe you will find it to be one of the most useful tools you possess to ensure that you have done everything you can for your patient and for the owner who cares for him.
language: English
title: Forensic Investigation of Animal Cruelty: A Guide for Veterinary and Law Enforcement Professionals by Sinclair, Leslie, Merck, Melinda, Lockwood, Randall (2006) Paperback
titlecomplete: Forensic Investigation of Animal Cruelty: A Guide for Veterinary and Law Enforcement Professionals by Sinclair, Leslie, Merck, Melinda, Lockwood, Randall (2006) Paperback
ratings_count: 7
publisher: Humane Society Press