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UF Animal Forensic Conference 2024 - Introduction to the Series with Adam Stern
Episode 4420th May 2024 • The Animal Welfare Junction • A. Michelle Gonzalez, DVM, MS
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We are in person at the 2024 Animal Forensic Conference in Gainesville, Florida! Dr. G will be interviewing several of the speakers to give our audience a bit of the knowledge gained through the presentations. We will be releasing each interview individually to allow our listeners to find topics of interest.

This episode is our introduction to the series, and joining us is Dr. Adam Stern. Learn about the purpose of the conference and what to expect from the next set of episodes. These talks are applicable to all individuals involved in animal cruelty and investigations, including wildlife crimes.

We would also like to invite our listeners involved in animal cruelty investigations to visit and join the International Society for Animal Forensic Sciences https://isafs.org/

Mentioned in this episode:

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Keep it Humane Podcast Network

The Animal Welfare Junction is part of the Keep It Humane Podcast Network. Visit keepithumane.com/podcastnetwork to find us and our amazing animal welfare podcast partners.

Transcripts

DrG:

Hi and welcome to the Animal Welfare Junction.

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This is your host Dr.

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G and our music is written

and produced by Mike Sullivan.

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For the next three days I am actually

recording in person for the first time

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doing an in person recording podcast and

I am excited to be at the:

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of Florida Animal Forensic Conference.

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So here to talk to me about

this conference is Dr.

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Adam Stern.

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Welcome back to the junction.

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Adam Stern: Thanks for having me back.

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I feel like I was just here like a

couple of months ago, so this is fun.

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DrG: I know.

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Right.

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And that's where my invite came to.

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So that was actually kind of cool.

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So this is really exciting being

here, being around all these people.

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What can our listeners expect to hear

from the interviews with the speakers?

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Adam Stern: So the conference itself,

it's, it's designed to educate everyone.

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So educating investigators, educating

the veterinarian, which has a huge

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component to these investigations.

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And then even the, the attorney,

uh, the prosecutors and honestly a

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defense attorney too, because they

can use this information to do well

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for their clients as well, you know?

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Um, so.

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When we developed this conference,

the whole point was to have like

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short term goals and long term goals.

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And so like short term goals for me is,

you know, they, they learn something

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new and they can apply it tomorrow.

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And every time I have a conference

or a workshop and guarantee you the

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same thing here is somebody is going

to get a case tomorrow or next week

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and be like, I just learned this at

your conference and I applied it.

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Super cool.

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So that's one thing.

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I really like that because it's all about

education and learning something new.

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And then the long term, and you'll see

that some of these speakers who you're

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going to speak with over the next few

days, they're going to tell you it's

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sort of teamwork and to develop a plan

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before you need it.

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And so you're going to hear about,

you know, footprints and tire tracks

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and, uh, animal behavior stuff that

your agency might not have access to.

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And it's a good thing

to, to plan for that.

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DrG: Yeah.

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I think that knowing about what's

available even helps us figure out what

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resources are out there and maybe we

think, Oh, that's not feasible for me.

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But then you see it, you hear

about it and it's like, Oh, maybe

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that is feasible for me, right?

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Adam Stern: Yeah.

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No, I.

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Obviously, everything comes

down to funding, right?

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Uh, but I think you'll find in the Animal

Forensic Investigation, uh, group that

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there's actually a lot of resources.

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There's people out there who, um,

actually do provide some of these

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services at low cost, or sometimes

they even donate their time.

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Uh, you'll, you'll be able to talk to

people on the phone, share some images.

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So maybe they're not doing the case,

but they're gonna give you a call.

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kind of ways, bounce ideas

off of the person to say,

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Hey, did you think about this?

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Or did you think about that?

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So I think there's, there's

a lot of things to deal with.

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Um, and I guess I'm old now, but I would

say, you know, pull out your Rolodex

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and look through the numbers that

you have the network people that you

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meet at this conference, shoot 'em an

email, call him on the phone and say,

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Hey, I saw you talk or we met there.

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And I need help.

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DrG: Yeah, I think that that's one

of the most valuable things about

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these types of conferences is just

the connections that you make.

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Because, you know, myself as a

veterinarian well, I'm limited into

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the things that I can do, but then

I come here and I meet somebody that

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is an expert in photography that can

teach me or help me in the future or,

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you know, even with wildlife stuff.

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I don't really deal with wildlife but

then if I have a wildlife case then I

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have a contact that I can connect with.

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call and say, hey, can yo this case?

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Adam Stern: And even if yo case,

you call them and t not really

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the person, but I know who is.

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So even if you just get t They can

totally get you to who, who can help you.

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DrG: So what are the topics

that, that are going to be

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discussed during these three days?

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Adam Stern: So I'm not going to

remember them all because there's a lot.

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Um, but we're going to talk about

best practices for just a general

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animal cruelty investigation.

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Uh, the first day is going to have more

of the sort of field relevant stuff.

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So forensic entomology.

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You know, we collect it off the

body, but also at the scene.

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And it's even more important

to get the scene information.

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Uh, we're going to have

forensic photography.

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You mentioned that already.

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Uh, and then a little bit on DNA

analysis and, and those sorts of things.

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The, the second day is going to

be more, uh, small animal focus.

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And then there's also going to be a

bunch of law stuff in there as well.

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So, uh, Information about search warrants.

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Um, and then preparing to testify in

court is going to be another thing.

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So we have a couple of

attorneys doing that.

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And then for the small animal stuff,

it's, you know, the basic, uh, forensic

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examination of the live animal.

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The forensic autopsy.

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And then I'm going to be doing,

uh, a toxicology session.

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And then we have a, a canine

aggressive behavior section.

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The last A is a little bit more of a mix.

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It's going to be more of

our large animal focus.

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So, uh, equine dental diseases, which

are very important for horses and one

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of the reasons why they might look at

a sort of starved state where they're

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all emaciated and just skin and bones.

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Um, so we're going to be talking that.

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We have some marine mammal.

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Uh, forensic scientist who is

going to be talking about her role,

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um, in the marine mammal world.

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And then we're going to deal with some

wildlife issues, uh, venomous reptiles,

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sort of what to do when you think you

might encounter one, uh, because that's a

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dangerous situation for any investigator.

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So kind of just the nuts and bolts

of how to approach that situation.

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Um, we're also going to do wildlife

trade, uh, like the illegal aspects of it.

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And then hunter accidents.

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So someone is out maybe hunting

legally, but there's a firearm

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issue and someone gets hurt.

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So we have an expert who's

going to talk about that.

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So sort of just looking at the animal,

but really in a different way, they're

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not the cause, you know, they're not

the victim or anything, but their

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event, the hunting is involved here.

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DrG: Well, I really like the progression

of the talks just because it feels like

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here's the basics and then here's a

little more advanced and then here's how

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you kind of like put it all together.

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So again, I'm looking forward to the

next three days to what I'm going

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to learn, what everybody else is

going to learn and all the different

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connections that I'm going to make.

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Adam Stern: Yeah.

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So no, it's, it's, it's a lot of fun.

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And I think, you know, we started

with the investigation on purpose

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because that's what happens first.

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You know, you don't just,

oh, here's the animal, right?

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You, there's a scene.

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We have to identify it, we have

to document it, and then we can do

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some of the downstream analysis.

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So, that's kind of why we did it that way.

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And, uh, hopefully everybody enjoys it.

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DrG: Absolutely.

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Well, I know that I'm looking forward

to it, so thank you very much for

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giving us your time, and we'll see

what comes about in the next few days.

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Adam Stern: Alright, well

thanks, and I hope you enjoy.

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