Our Vision

Animal crime investigators are constrained by resources and training available for investigating scenes of animal abuse. This ongoing project provides crime scene materials and training for these investigators at zero cost. Initially, the toolkit will focus on insect collection but will expand to cover blood and body fluids, photographic evidence, non-contact analysis, and other new techniques developed by our other projects.

Scenes of animal cruelty may hold blood spatters that are unidentified as animal and may go undetected. This project seeks to establish new imaging techniques for the rapid on-site identification of suspected animal blood evidence and source species. Pilot research into novel imaging tools show a successful species identification rate of 100%, but needs substantially more comparisons and method training.

We will establish a laboratory dedicated to the analysis of animal crime evidence, with full priority provided to animal DNA, necropsy, pattern, and trace evidence analysis. Currently, animal DNA is waitlisted over 12 months and sees high upcharge; we will cut this down to equal the timelines of priority human cases.

Lead fragments will contaminate an animal and can poison other animals or humans eating it. Illegal poaching is becoming increasingly difficult to detect from discarded animal remains, but may be identified by traces of lead contaminating the animal's wound. This project develops techniques for identifying traces of lead in bullet or arrow wounds, and scene-ready visualization of ballistic evidence.

Determining time since death is a critical aspect of forensic investigations, providing a time window for investigators. Our institute applies its expertise across a spectrum of decomposition variables in the research and training of managing animal death scenes. These ongoing projects explore the influences of decomposition and produce region-specific data for optimal criminal investigations.

Outreach, training, and science dissemination forms the core of the Animal Forensics Institute. We educate all experience levels — from summer workshops for high school students interested in forensic science, to discipline experts at national meetings, to frontline practitioners receiving training in new skills, free of charge.