Ballistics - 2026 Animal ForensiCon with Dr. Nancy Bradley
The 2026 Animal ForensiCon in Orlando, Florida
Dr. Nancy Bradley discusses the use of ballistic information in animal related crimes.
Transcript
Dr. G:
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:We just got done learning
about ballistics.
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:So here to tell us more about it is Dr.
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:Nancy Bradley.
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:Thank you so much for being here.
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:Dr. Nancy Bradley:
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:Hi, I'm, uh, Dr.
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:Nancy Bradley.
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:Uh, we talked about ballistics.
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:It was just kind of a brief
overview of, of ballistics.
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:Basically a little bit of background
on firearms, a few statistics, uh,
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:potentially a little bit about ammunition
and projectiles, and then potentially
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:what to look for in the live or the
deceased animal, uh, different signs.
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:And then potentially how to
identify like entry/exit wounds,
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:penetration, perforation, you know,
did it go all the way through?
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:Did it, did it stay in the animal?
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:And then potentially recovery of the
ballistics, and then potentially, um,
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:creating those relationships with that
ballistic expert or the CSI folks,
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:and then potentially ongoing training.
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:And then the benefit of training,
uh, even on the human side, uh,
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:especially for veterinarians and,
and then potentially applying to
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:your examining board, especially if
you're the one doing the forensics.
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:Usually we're few and far between, so we
can petition to our veterinary examining
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:boards, even if we got, uh, stuff through,
say, forensic training, forensic nurse
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:training, or an, a medical examiner's
office and get partial CE for it.
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:But again, in that training, you're
learning stuff, but then it's just
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:a goldmine of networking and then
establishing those relationships
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:for when these cases arise.
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:Dr. G:
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:So what is the kind of
information that we can gain?
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:Dr. Nancy Bradley:
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:Well, I think the biggest thing my
main takeaway of, of the lecture is
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:hopefully- not to create, you know,
weapon specialists or Dirty Harry
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:or anything like that, but it's to
identify if there is a projectile
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:and to collect that projectile.
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:'Cause a lot of times, like
a BB or pellet, a lot of
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:people take that for granted.
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:Well, BBs are smooth bore.
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:There's no rifling, so
there's no reconnection.
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:But a lot of pellets have, uh, their,
their rifles are, uh, rifle- rifling
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:in the barrel, so there is some
kind of tracing back to that weapon.
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:So I think any time an animal is
shot, and then you potentially can
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:recover the projectile, and you're
looking and you're seeing rifling of
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:any kind, even if there's no suspect,
even if it's just a stray animal or
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:just a, you know, a TNR cat, right?
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:That, that law enforcement should
be contacted and let them put
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:that in their property room.
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:Uh, in my lecture also, I talked about
the serial shooter case in Phoenix,
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:which was, I think, uh, 2005 to 2006.
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:And, um, a lot of that was
horses and, and, and dogs,
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:uh, across the entire valley.
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:So, you know, Mesa in the
East Valley all the way out to
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:Tolleson in the West Valley.
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:So...
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:And a lot of, uh, people died.
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:People were crippled.
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:A lot of animals died.
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:Um, but if-- It ha- It
started out with the animals.
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:And if we were maybe a little bit
more aggressive in the, in the, in the
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:beginning and tried to assert, be more
assertive, that we could have saved
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:lives or prevented people from being
crippled or because there were people
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:that were shot, they're gonna be in
wheelchairs the rest of their life.
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:Um, those two, like I said, one
gentleman received a death sentence,
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:and the other one is life imprisonment.
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:So, um, the-- my takeaway is that
hopefully any time an animal's shot is to
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:get that projectile, if at all possible,
um, without endangering the animal.
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:If it's deceased, get the,
get the projectile, you know?
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:Get the information and potentially
hopefully have law enforcement get it.
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:And even if they're just storing it Okay.
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:It's like, if you remember, I was talking
to people here at the meeting, Helter
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:Skelter, back with Charles Manson.
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:They actually had, uh, a broken .22
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:gun from some of the initial homicides
back, people that are old enough
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:to remember the '60s killing in,
in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills,
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:and that gun had been recovered.
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:It was sitting in a property room,
and nobody connected the dots.
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:And they finally did connect
the dots, and then it started
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:putting the whole thing together.
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:And if we can collect these projectiles,
especially ones with rifling, with...
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:that are, that are traceable to a
weapon if it's ever found, then that
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:would be, that would be meaningful.
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:Dr. G:
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:And for, like, investigators,
especially, like, veterinarians,
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:and there will be veterinarians that
are doing these necropsies that are
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:not trained in forensics, what are,
what is kinda like a do, dos or
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:don'ts of collecting these samples?
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:Dr. Nancy Bradley:
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:That's the big one, and I still
have to collect my colleagues at,
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:at Arizona Humane, even though
we do these cases all the time.
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:Never, never use a metal instrument, okay?
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:You have, uh, if you use
a metal instrument, you're
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:gonna destroy the rifling.
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:That's that fingerprinting along
the side of the projectile.
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:Always use, uh, plastic
forceps or gloved hands, okay?
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:It could be exam gloves or sterile gloves.
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:It doesn't have to be sterile gloves.
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:But you, again, you don't wanna, um, m-
mess that up in any way, and I've had, you
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:know, I've had to correct colleagues on
that, so it, it, it is really important.
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:Dr. G:
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:Excellent.
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:Well, thank you so much for your
information, and thank you for
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:being here and for what you do.
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:Dr. Nancy Bradley:
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:Good.
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:Thank you.
