In the French city of Tours, a pretty unorthodox thing went down in court.
A dog was called to the witness stand.
Like, a canine. A pooch. A pupster. A literal dog participated in a MURDER TRIAL.
Not a dog poo on the neighbor’s yard civil court case, but an actual murder trial.
The judge ordered a suspect to threaten the dog with a bat to gauge the dog’s reaction, hopefully to see if the suspect did in fact kill the dog’s owner.
The nine-year-old dog, Tango, was approached with the bat, then the same was done with another dog of the same breed and age, Norman.
The suspect’s lawyer said:
“So if Tango lifted his right paw, moved his mouth or his tail, is he recognizing my client or not? I find it very troubling for the French legal system. If a judge ignores the demands of reason and surrounds himself with experts who are unreasonable, well the system becomes very dangerous.”
The lawyer was pretty much right. The experiment was a failure.
Both dogs were dismissed.
Until we can read a dog’s mind or teach them to speak English, we’re pretty sure dogs shouldn’t be called to the stand.