Postmortem animal activity by a pet dog

Germany. A 31-year-old man lived with his 71-year-old mother and his pet German Shepherd in a converted garden hut. The mother last talked to her son at about 6.45 p.m. in his room on the evening of his death. She then went into her room to watch TV, which she turned up very loud since she was hard of hearing. Around 8.15 p.m., neighbours heard a shot that seemed to come from the direction of the garden hut. Around 9.00 p.m., the mother, who seemed very upset, came to the neighbours’ house and asked them to accompany her because something had happened to her son. The neighbours discovered the body of the man and called the ambulance.

Fig.1 A 31-year-old man, suicide by shooting himself in the mouth.

The deceased was lying on his bed in a supine position, the head and trunk were slightly raised on a pillow. A pistol, a Walther 08, was lying on the deceased’s lower abdomen under his hands; an empty cartridge case was found on the floor next to the bed. The oral cavity of the victim was full of blood and gunpowder traces, and there was a typical exit wound in the upper cervical region. The projectile was found in a wall-to-wall cupboard behind his head. Large areas of skin as well as subcutaneous fatty tissue from the face and neck were missing. Apart from the area behind the exit wound, hardly any blood was found near the body.

The windows of the room were closed, the door to his room was also closed. A farewell letter was found on a table. According to the mother, her son usually kept the dog in his room. On the floor next to the bed was a half filled bowl of commercial canned dog food. According to the mother, the dog was good-natured and had never attacked anyone before. When the police arrived, the German Shepherd moved about excitedly between the furniture but did not prevent the policemen or ambulance men from approaching the body. The dog reacted immediately to a sharp command and was taken to an animal sanctuary in a police van.

Fig.2 Detail of the left cheek.

According to the autopsy findings, the man had died from a gun shot in the mouth, which travelled through the deceased’s head exiting at the back of the neck. The entry wound was in the mouth where the bullet had passed sagitally through the tongue. The oral cavity was full of gunpowder residue. The shot went through the soft palate, damaging the upper two cervical vertebral bodies and completely severing the upper cervical cord at its junction with the medulla oblongata. The exit wound was in the upper midcervical region. There was some blood in the trachea, but no evidence of blood aspiration.

The lower half of the face showed typical postmortem animal scavenging injuries. A considerable amount of skin and subcutaneous fatty tissue were missing, especially in the areas of the mouth, nose and left cheek. Further extended scavenged areas were found on the front and left side of the neck so that the thyroid cartilage and the cervical muscles were exposed. The wound edges, which exhibited no obvious vital subcutaneous bleeding, revealed small, parallel, partially curved superficial notch marks suggestive of bite wounds. The injuries at the wound edges could be easily identified as having been caused by the teeth of a fully grown German Shepherd. The almost complete absence of blood in the injured regions of the face and the neck was also remarkable. A great deal of hair was found in the wound which came from the German Shepherd.

Fig.3 Skull of a grown German Shepherd (age: 2 years, 9 months). Its developmental stage corresponds to that of the dog of the case reported.

The toxicological analysis showed that the man had consumed a great amount of alcohol prior to his death (blood alcohol: 2.74‰, urine alcohol: 3.68‰). The other toxicological results were negative.

In the case presented here, the time of death could be precisely established as that of the time at which the neighbours heard the shot (at the end of the TV news cast). The time of discovery of the body is also precisely known from the police reports. Thus the mutilation of the victim’s body by his German Shepherd must have occurred within the first 45 minutes after death.

Fig.4 Stomach contents of the dog (ca. 380 g), which the latter had vomited in the police van.

In the present case, the psychological state of the animal seems to be the only possible reason for its behaviour. One possible explanation for such behaviour is that a pet will try to help an unconscious owner first by licking or nudging, but when this fails to produce any results the behaviour of the animal can become more frantic and in a state of panic can lead to biting. The motive is not to attack the owner but is a kind of ‘‘displacement’’ behaviour motivated by confusion and fear. The fact that the efforts of the animal will obviously be fruitless explains why this can easily escalate and culminate in excessive mutilation. The case described here is entirely consistent with this type of behaviour, particularly as all available information indicates a normally well-behaved animal with a friendly relationship to its owner. The dog was a healthy and vaccinated animal.

During an initial investigation, postmortem scavenging by pets (dogs, cats, etc.), which sometimes occurs, may sometimes lead to the suspicion that a crime has been committed. In most cases however, the death was due to natural causes. The time of the onset of postmortem scavenging by animals can often not be exactly determined because the interval between the time of death and discovery of the body is usually considerable.