A Dog Who Took the Witness Stand
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A Dog Who Took the Witness Stand
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Re: A Dog Who Took the Witness Stand
#2I've seen a similar story(video) with Judge Judy pop up on reddit a few times.
Re: A Dog Who Took the Witness Stand
#3Ain't no rules says a dog can't play witness.
Re: A Dog Who Took the Witness Stand
#4Interestingly enough, we now have better ways of proving ownership that weren't possible back then: Get your dog microchipped and tattooed if you haven't already. They're far better ways of proving ownership than feelings.
Also, if I were there, I'd have snuck a treat into the court room. It's far more foolproof if I'd been able to condition the dog to expect treats by coming to me in a few 20 minute vists.
Also, does anyone have suggestions for international pet databases? My country doesn't have a national database.
Re: A Dog Who Took the Witness Stand
#5I thought this might be about the opposite: in some cultures animals could be tried and convicted of crimes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_trial
Re: A Dog Who Took the Witness Stand
#6Interestingly enough, we now have better ways of proving ownership that weren't possible back then: Get your dog microchipped and tattooed if you haven't already. They're far better ways of proving ownership than feelings. Also, if I were there, I'd have snuck a treat into the court room. It's far more foolproof if I'd been able to condition the dog to expect treats by coming to me in a few 20 minute vists. Also, doe…
I don't see how a microchip (that a thief would have removed/replaced) helps prove ownership, and tattooing has been available for a long time.
A friend of a friend lost their cat once: it suddenly disappeared. Several years later they found it dead in a public place, but apparently well fed. It appears that someone else had adopted it, but they never even found out who, let alone how or why. I don't know how they identified the animal. Some people can identify animals from their appearance as easily as most people identify humans; some people cannot even identify humans very reliably.
Put lots of pictures of you and your pet on social media, perhaps, and summon an animal super-recogniser as an expert witness?
Re: A Dog Who Took the Witness Stand
#7I thought this might be about the opposite: in some cultures animals could be tried and convicted of crimes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_trial
Then the dog would be the defendant, not a witness.
Re: A Dog Who Took the Witness Stand
#8Re: A Dog Who Took the Witness Stand
#9Interestingly enough, we now have better ways of proving ownership that weren't possible back then: Get your dog microchipped and tattooed if you haven't already. They're far better ways of proving ownership than feelings. Also, if I were there, I'd have snuck a treat into the court room. It's far more foolproof if I'd been able to condition the dog to expect treats by coming to me in a few 20 minute vists. Also, doe…
I don't see how a microchip (that a thief would have removed/replaced) helps prove ownership, and tattooing has been available for a long time. A friend of a friend lost their cat once: it suddenly disappeared. Several years later they found it dead in a public place, but apparently well fed. It appears that someone else had adopted it, but they never even found out who, let alone how or why. I don't know how they id…
Reminds me of the time our cat got run over in the road in front of the house. Scooped the cat up, took it up to the house and told the wife. "Poor Kitty Kat, should have stayed out of the road." As we stood over the dead cat for a few moments, the real Kitty Kat walked up, sniffed the dead one, "hey, why y'all standing around a dead cat?" Hurray, our cat's not dead, but now I get to go bury a cat that wasn't mine.
Point is, meh, it might have been your friend's cat that they found.
Re: A Dog Who Took the Witness Stand
#10Interestingly enough, we now have better ways of proving ownership that weren't possible back then: Get your dog microchipped and tattooed if you haven't already. They're far better ways of proving ownership than feelings. Also, if I were there, I'd have snuck a treat into the court room. It's far more foolproof if I'd been able to condition the dog to expect treats by coming to me in a few 20 minute vists. Also, doe…
I don't see how a microchip (that a thief would have removed/replaced) helps prove ownership, and tattooing has been available for a long time. A friend of a friend lost their cat once: it suddenly disappeared. Several years later they found it dead in a public place, but apparently well fed. It appears that someone else had adopted it, but they never even found out who, let alone how or why. I don't know how they id…
> I don't see how a microchip (that a thief would have removed/replaced) helps prove ownership...
A microchip (aka RFID tag) contains a unique serial number. An entry corresponding to this serial number is added to national databases that are easily searched by vets, shelters, and animal control.
It's nontrivial to remove a microchip (requires a vet to perform an X-ray and surgery). You're talking about removing a grain of rice that's buried somewhere within the dog's shoulders.
On the other hand, it's easy to transfer registration data (modifying the database entry) if you have the approval of the original owner.
At any vet worth their board certification, they would scan the chip and contact the named owner before performing this surgery.
Microchips are well known to be effective ownership proving tools, and their prevalence even without a matching tattoo is usually an effective theft deterrent. If you think you can demonstrate otherwise (notwithstanding anecdotes concerning lost/stolen unchipped pets), I'd love to hear it!