Melinda Merck is a forensic veterinarian. She gets called to crime scenes with animals involved.
Her job at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals involves helping prosecutors build court cases. She was involved in the Michael Vick case when officials had to analyze the remains of eight pit bulls buried on Vick’s property.
Merck is helping to co-found a program at the University of Florida. It is a first-of-its-kind veterinary forensic science training program. It has already been coined Animal CSI!
Hands-on seminars teach participants crime-scene processing and the preservation of evidence in cases of animal abuse and neglect such as those involving puppy mills, dogfighting and animal hoarding.
So far they have given certificates to over 200 people!
Animals can’t tell us who hurt them…let’s find a way to help them!
[Image via WENN.]
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