Sunday, September 19, 2010

Effort Uses Dogs’ DNA to Track Their Abusers

Often in many crime investigations, DNA is looked into to find something out, such as the victim or suspect. But now, many Scientists and animal rights advocates are considering doing the same for dog's that have been abused to track down their past owners. They have created the country’s first dog-fighting DNA database, which they say will help criminal investigators piece together an abused animal’s history by establishing ties among breeders, owners, pit operators and the animals. In other words, justice can be served.
Canin Codis, the system made for containing the DNA profiles of abusive owners is similar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's digital archive for storing DNA profiles of criminals. One such abuse crime against dogs is dog fighting. This is where owners have their dogs compete against other dogs in a fighting pit. However, The new database may provide a useful tool for tracking down where the animal was bred, and maybe the owner. Scientists say that by swabbing the inner cheek of a dog, they will be able to determine whether the animal comes from one of several known dog-fighting bloodlines. This way it can be and if a suspected dog fighter’s animal matches one of those bloodlines, that would be a key piece of evidence.”
These animals were horribly mutilated, such as missing ears, missing eyes, missing parts of their leg, etc. One such animal, a brown and white pit bull that now goes by the name Reggie, still bears a web of fight scars across his face. The dog cowers at the sound of cheering crowds, which his owner, Gale Frey, believes he associates with the roar of the fight pit.
Not nearly 250 of the dogs recovered in the last year that have taken part in dog fighting have been rehabilitated and are now pets or service and therapy dogs.

This has a positive impact on our society because this new DNA profile tracking system will help track down abusive owners and get rid of them, protecting dogs from any more harm and rehabilitate them.

one thing I'd like to know in the article is if this system would be set up for other pets in general that might also be abused in the furure.

6 comments:

Molly Warnken said...

I found this review interesting because I didn’t know that they were developing a way to trace down dog-fighting rings It was nice to read that something is being done to stop the fighting and killing of dogs so simple human enjoyment and money. It was interesting to learn that by swabbing the cheek of the dog scientists would be able to trace the blood line. The cheek swab can also help to find the breed that the dog belongs to. It was also interesting to learn that there is a whole system already underway called Canine Codis that was digitally profiling of all the dog’s DNA. Through this Codis and the whole process of doggy DNA it may be possible to find the dog’s owner so they can be properly punished. I think the review could have been a little better if there was more examples of how this system is being used in the world today. I liked how long the review was but I feel like the other two parts of the post should have been a little longer. I think this post needed just a little bit more detail. I was impressed by this article. I was happy to learn that there is something being done to help stop the animal fighting and cruelty towards of animals.

Nick Janney said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nick Janney said...

I thought this review was extremely interesting and it really opened my eyes to what scientists can really do with forensics these days. I think it is amazing that from a simple cheek swab, scientists can determine a dog's bloodline, leading them to the dog' owner. What I also found interesting is the existence of the Canine Codis, an organization of which I had knowledge of. Two suggestions I could make to improve this review would be to add eith specific quotations or individual people into the summary in order to give the article some factual support and overall more detail.

Alex Hartwell said...

3. You can tell they read the original article through their summary.
3. I liked how they used specific numbers and data from the original article.
3. It was written well and was easy to understand.
2. They could have given more information on the implementation of the system in society.
2. They could have used people's names to make it more personal and real.
1. I learned that people actually care about animals and are doing something to stop animal cruelty.

Anonymous said...

This was a very interesting review because I had no idea that dog abusers were being sought by with evidence of their dog's DNA. There were three interesting points in this review. The first being the Canin Codis and how its so similar to the FBI's criminal database. Second, the intense description of dog fighting and its effects. The third interesting point in the review being how this new system of dog-abuse tracking will have such a positive effect on our society.
There are two ways this review could have been made better. The first being a direct quotation from the article or a comment from someone working on this dog DNA process. A second way this review could have been better is if it showed how this process is being used today and where. I am impressed by the efforts being put in by people to catch dog abusers. I learned that DNA from dogs is being used to catch these abusers.

Russell said...

I though this article was very interesting. I had no idea that there are now ways to track down dog fighting rings. Now by swabbing the inner cheek of a dog and establishing dog fighting DNA databases, scientists are able to determine if the animal comes from one of the well-known dog fighting blood lines. I thought that this article was very well written and it was easy to understand. It is clear that the author did a good amount of research and was very knowledgeable on the subject. There were specific examples and facts that tied into the article very well. The author could have given more information and how common this practice is. It could have used a little bit more detail. I was very interested in this article and glad to hear that people are fighting to put an end to this issue.