Hi and welcome to the Animal Welfare Junction. This is your host Dr. G and our music is written and produced by Mike Sullivan. For the next three days I am actually recording in person for the first time doing an in person recording podcast and I am excited to be at the 2024 University of Florida Animal Forensic Conference. So here to talk to me about this conference is Dr. Adam Stern. Welcome back to the junction.

Thanks for having me back. I feel like I was just here like a couple of months ago, so this is fun.

I know. Right. And that's where my invite came to. So that was actually kind of cool. So this is really exciting being here, being around all these people. What can our listeners expect to hear from the interviews with the speakers?

So the conference itself, it's, it's designed to educate everyone. So educating investigators, educating the veterinarian, which has a huge component to these investigations. And then even the, the attorney, uh, the prosecutors and honestly a defense attorney too, because they can use this information to do well for their clients as well, you know? Um, so. When we developed this conference, the whole point was to have like short term goals and long term goals. And so like short term goals for me is, you know, they, they learn something new and they can apply it tomorrow. And every time I have a conference or a workshop and guarantee you the same thing here is somebody is going to get a case tomorrow or next week and be like, I just learned this at your conference and I applied it. Super cool. So that's one thing. I really like that because it's all about education and learning something new. And then the long term, and you'll see that some of these speakers who you're going to speak with over the next few days, they're going to tell you it's sort of teamwork and to develop a plan before you need it. And so you're going to hear about, you know, footprints and tire tracks and, uh, animal behavior stuff that your agency might not have access to. And it's a good thing to, to plan for that.

Yeah. I think that knowing about what's available even helps us figure out what resources are out there and maybe we think, Oh, that's not feasible for me. But then you see it, you hear about it and it's like, Oh, maybe that is feasible for me, right?

Yeah. No, I. Obviously, everything comes down to funding, right? Uh, but I think you'll find in the Animal Forensic Investigation, uh, group that there's actually a lot of resources. There's people out there who, um, actually do provide some of these services at low cost, or sometimes they even donate their time. Uh, you'll, you'll be able to talk to people on the phone, share some images. So maybe they're not doing the case, but they're gonna give you a call. kind of ways, bounce ideas off of the person to say, Hey, did you think about this? Or did you think about that? So I think there's, there's a lot of things to deal with. Um, and I guess I'm old now, but I would say, you know, pull out your Rolodex and look through the numbers that you have the network people that you meet at this conference, shoot 'em an email, call him on the phone and say, Hey, I saw you talk or we met there. And I need help.

Yeah, I think that that's one of the most valuable things about these types of conferences is just the connections that you make. Because, you know, myself as a veterinarian well, I'm limited into the things that I can do, but then I come here and I meet somebody that is an expert in photography that can teach me or help me in the future or, you know, even with wildlife stuff. I don't really deal with wildlife but then if I have a wildlife case then I have a contact that I can connect with. call and say, hey, can yo this case?

And even if yo case, you call them and t not really the person, but I know who is. So even if you just get t They can totally get you to who, who can help you.

So what are the topics that, that are going to be discussed during these three days?

So I'm not going to remember them all because there's a lot. Um, but we're going to talk about best practices for just a general animal cruelty investigation. Uh, the first day is going to have more of the sort of field relevant stuff. So forensic entomology. You know, we collect it off the body, but also at the scene. And it's even more important to get the scene information. Uh, we're going to have forensic photography. You mentioned that already. Uh, and then a little bit on DNA analysis and, and those sorts of things. The, the second day is going to be more, uh, small animal focus. And then there's also going to be a bunch of law stuff in there as well. So, uh, Information about search warrants. Um, and then preparing to testify in court is going to be another thing. So we have a couple of attorneys doing that. And then for the small animal stuff, it's, you know, the basic, uh, forensic examination of the live animal. The forensic autopsy. And then I'm going to be doing, uh, a toxicology session. And then we have a, a canine aggressive behavior section. The last A is a little bit more of a mix. It's going to be more of our large animal focus. So, uh, equine dental diseases, which are very important for horses and one of the reasons why they might look at a sort of starved state where they're all emaciated and just skin and bones. Um, so we're going to be talking that. We have some marine mammal. Uh, forensic scientist who is going to be talking about her role, um, in the marine mammal world. And then we're going to deal with some wildlife issues, uh, venomous reptiles, sort of what to do when you think you might encounter one, uh, because that's a dangerous situation for any investigator. So kind of just the nuts and bolts of how to approach that situation. Um, we're also going to do wildlife trade, uh, like the illegal aspects of it. And then hunter accidents. So someone is out maybe hunting legally, but there's a firearm issue and someone gets hurt. So we have an expert who's going to talk about that. So sort of just looking at the animal, but really in a different way, they're not the cause, you know, they're not the victim or anything, but their event, the hunting is involved here.

Well, I really like the progression of the talks just because it feels like here's the basics and then here's a little more advanced and then here's how you kind of like put it all together. So again, I'm looking forward to the next three days to what I'm going to learn, what everybody else is going to learn and all the different connections that I'm going to make.

Yeah. So no, it's, it's, it's a lot of fun. And I think, you know, we started with the investigation on purpose because that's what happens first. You know, you don't just, oh, here's the animal, right? You, there's a scene. We have to identify it, we have to document it, and then we can do some of the downstream analysis. So, that's kind of why we did it that way. And, uh, hopefully everybody enjoys it.

Absolutely. Well, I know that I'm looking forward to it, so thank you very much for giving us your time, and we'll see what comes about in the next few days.

Alright, well thanks, and I hope you enjoy.