A law enforcement officer seizes a dying horse without a warrant. An abused animal is brought to a veterinarian for euthanasia and cremation, but instead is necropsied. A law enforcement officer shields onlooking children from a cat’s body by placing it in a nearby dumpster. A veterinarian does a warrantless blood draw to diagnose a malnourished dog, and the blood results are used in a criminal prosecution. In animal cruelty cases, the animal’s body—whether dead or alive—is a crime scene. Many law enforcement professionals have not been trained to properly preserve and search that crime scene, and yet they are forced to do so, without compromising the evidence, the defendant’s constitutional rights, or the animal’s health or life. These cases present novel search and seizure issues. Join the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s attorneys David Rosengard, Emily Lewis, and Kathleen Wood to discuss how these and other issues can be resolved for a successful prosecution, and how they can be addressed or avoided in future cases.

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