UF Animal Forensic Conference 2024 - Introduction to the Series with Adam Stern

DrG: 00:00:20

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: 2024

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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.