Dog appears as witness in murder trial

[KevinDW78]

Well I guess people have a right to face their accusors in court.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...rder-trial.html

[01503]

Yeah, doesn't surprise me.

Next thing you know, they'll have God as a witness, and start doing Ouija Boards to find the murder weapon.

[fletch]

Leave it to the French. You think they would have learned from past experience. See here:

[LiberTodd]

During a preliminary hearing the pet was led into the witness box by a vet to see how it reacted to a suspect.

It is said to have "barked furiously".

The aim was to decide if there was sufficient evidence to launch a full murder inquiry and a judge is yet to reach a decision.

French judge Thomas Cassuto praising the animal for his "exemplary behaviour and invaluable assistance".

lol wut

[AulusAemilius]

Certainly the 'testimony' cannot morally be used to convict or influence the case decision. From the article, it sounds like the dog reacts oddly only to one certain suspect, which is being used to justify further investigation into the case.

Do you think that is an acceptable reason to further investigate? In my experience, dogs do have the ability to instinctually recognize certain people. (as the owner is critical to the dog's survival in the typical domestic world the dog lives in).

Edited September 19, 2008 by AulusAemilius

[LiberTodd]

Certainly the 'testimony' cannot morally be used to convict or influence the case decision. From the article, it sounds like the dog reacts oddly to a certain suspect, which is being used to justify further investigation into the case.

Do you think that is an acceptable reason to further investigate? In my experience, dogs do have the ability recognize certain people, usually just to identify their owner.

Most dogs also just bark at strangers. The guy could have been perceived as a threat to the dog for a million reasons. Territory, male dominance, hell maybe the guy just had bacon for breakfast and the dog could still smell it on his breath. Maybe the guy owns a cat and therefore smells like one. Using the dog's reaction of "barking at a guy" as any kind of credible source for murder investigation is morbidly retarded and wouldn't even fly on one of those crappy CSI-ripoff shows.

[Steve D'Ippolito]

K-Mac's dog barks at me without fail. And that started before I owned cats. Doesn't bark at her boyfriend, never did.

[K-Mac]

And she's got bordatella right now (kennel cough) so when you're over for our Front Range Objectivism meeting on Saturday, you can hear some extra noises! (Yes, I vaccinate my dog. No, they cannot vaccinate them against all strains of kennel cough. No, we are never going to the dog park again.)

[AulusAemilius]

Ah, I was under the impression when reading the article that the dog went totally berserk when seeing the stranger, with only that stranger. The article is too sketchy in its details to know for sure. This is the sort of situation I was referring to. It would be interesting to see how the dog reacted when viewing pictures of a bunch of random strangers, and then the suspect.