Recent advances in forensic veterinary examination of animals affected by violent attitude

Abstract

The article is formulated and systematized with some issues of cruel atitude to animals in the aspect of forensic veterinary examination. It is proved that the main directions of improving the forensic veterinary examination of live animals affected by cruelty or corpses of animals with signs of violent death from cruelty are the development, approval and implementation of regulatory legal acts on forensic veterinary determination of the severity of bodily harm, judicial veterinary examination of live animals, forensic veterinary examination of a corpse of an animal, automation and optimization of the process of registration of results examination, and the use of advanced Information Technologies in forensic veterinary examination. The proposed authors' edition of the definition of “animal cruelty” for the criminal qualification of this offense. The novelty of defenition is what we proposed to consider as a consequence of animal cruelty not only the injury or death of the animal, but also severe damage or other disruption to its health. The content and justified consequences of cruelty to animals that are the subject of a forensic veterinary examination are disclosed. The consequences of cruelty to animals include not only the injury or death of the animal, but also severe injuries or other health problems. It was given a list of injuries (injuries) that are severe and life-threatening to the animal at the time of infliction and threaten the death of the animal; threat of loss, or the loss of any organ or the loss by an organ of its functions. We proposed to indicative list of issues that can be put to the decision of a forensic expert by a court or investigator during a study of a live animal that has been injured from abuse or a corpse of an animal with signs of violent death should be added as an addition to the “Scientific and methodological recommendations on the preparation and appointment of forensic examinations and expert studies ”for their practical use by law enforcement agencies. The qualification of an animal cruelty violation must be taken into account the opinion of the forensic veterinarian on the nature and severity of bodily harm, as well as the causal link between the injuries identified by the expert and the health condition or death of the animal. The criterion for differentiating an administrative and a criminal offense from cruelty to animals is solely the presence or absence of bodily harm, which is ascertained exclusively by a forensic veterinarian.

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“…(Klyuyev, 2019). During a forensic veterinary examination, only a forensic veterinary expert is the subject of expert activity, who is authorized by law to resolve issues related to the identification and assessment of bodily injuries caused to an animal as a result of cruel treatment (Yatsenko & Parilovskyi, 2020;Randour et al, 2021), during a traffic accident (Conroy et al, 2019), poaching (Franckenberg et al, 2015), in case of violation of their exploitation regime (Hall et al, 2020), use in various spectacular events (Doelling et al, 2021) etc. One of the objects of forensic veterinary examination is the cadaver of an animal (Ang et al, 2019;, examining which the forensic expert has to solve various questions, including regarding the time of its death (Yatsenko et al, 2019).…”

Cytomorphological changes of a cat’s cadaver’s parenchymal organs in the early postmortem period in the forensic veterinary examination aspect

“…Одні з об'єктів судово-ветеринарної експертизи -це трупи тварин, смерть яких настала від насильницької чи раптової смерті, в тому числі й за жорстокого поводження (Yatsenko & Parilovskyi, 2020), під час дорожньо-транспортної пригоди (Bruinderink & Hazebroek, 1996;Langley et al, 2006;Conroy et al, 2019), браконьєрства (Franckenberg et al, 2015) тощо.…”

The procedure for forensic veterinary determination of the severity of harm caused to the health of the animal

“…Визначення ступеня тяжкості тілесних ушкоджень тварин можливе виключно за допомогою судововетеринарної експертизи (Cooper et al, 1998;Mills, 2013;de Siqueira et al, 2016;Yatsenko & Parylovskyi, 2020).…”

“…Нами вже проаналізовані судово-експертні випадки дослідження трупів тварин з ознаками насильницької смерті від жорстокого поводження в Україні (Yatsenko et al, 2018;, запропонована авторська редакція дефініції "жорстоке поводження з тваринами" (Yatsenko & Parylovskyi, 2020), розроблені та звернені до використання в практиці судововетеринарної експертизи ознаки шкоди, заподіяної здоров'ю, небезпечної для життя тварини (Yatsenko et al, 2019), започатковане вчення про каліцтво тварин (Yatsenko et al, 2019). Проте, підвищення ефективності судово-ветеринарної експертизи можливе шляхом правової регламентації процедури її проведення на практиці.…”