Publikationsdatenbank

Repeated finds without head and tail:
serial crime to animals? (2023)

Art

Poster

Autoren

Langenhagen, A. K. (WE 12)

Oesterhelweg, L.

Windgassen, M.

Puget, C. (WE 12)

Gruber, A. D. (WE 12)

Mundhenk, L. (WE 12)

Kongress

Annual ESVP/ECVP Congress 2022

Athen, 07. – 10.09.2022

Quelle

Journal of comparative pathology

Bandzählung: 203

Seiten: 86

ISSN: 0021-9975

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021997523001846

DOI: 10.1016/j.jcpa.2023.03.158

Kontakt

Institut für Tierpathologie

Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 15
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 62450
pathologie@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

Introduction:
Animal abuse is sometimes a warning sign of subsequent criminal acts, for example, persistent assaults to animals or even as pre-stage to interpersonal violence. Veterinary pathologists are often the first to suspect and identify such criminal acts. Here we report on three primarily independent cases with a striking pattern of mutilation.

Materials and methods:
Within 1 year, and from the larger Berlin area, a half-decapitated fox cub without tail as well as a cat and a lamb, both without head and tail, were submitted for necropsy to clarify whether the animals were mutilated intravitam by a person or a predator. In addition to pathological examinations, two of the animals were analysed via imaging methods.

Results:
The mutilated parts of all three cadavers where the head and the tail should actually be located showed meticulous cut edges without any haemorrhages. Severe subcutaneous acute haemorrhage was detected on the fox´s right body side, and linear incisions of all layers of the thoracic and abdominal wall with haemorrhages and multiple bone fractures were noticed in the lamb. In addition, two ribs, the heart, the right lung lobe and the intestine were lacking from the body of the lamb.

Conclusions:
All three animals seemed to have been mutilated post mortem in a conspicuously similar fashion. Two cadavers showed intravital traumatic injuries with putative subsequent fatality. The repeated actions and the proximity of the sites of discovery could indicate that all cases were deliberate acts by the same offender.