Research in England has shown that a dog’s nose is sensitive enough to sense out a deceased human. Specially trained victim recovery dogs can perform phenomenal feats in sniffing out the whereabouts of bodies and body parts, even beneath mounds of rubble or deep below the water’s surface.
This will help forensic teams who are investigating a crime or murder that was committed even several years back, and it will also help solve unexplained missing person investigations. Lorna Irish from University of Huddersfield is investigating ways in which these specialist dogs can carry out their grim but vital tasks even more efficiently. South Yorkshire Police brought a trained victim recovery dog, a springer spaniel named Kip. Lorna then set out a sequence of vials containing different odours that she had prepared, these chemicals are known to be produced from the decomposed human body. Alongside these test chemicals were ‘positive controls’ associated with the human body, such as bone – from archaeological sources and unusually, pork at various stages of decomposition. Pork meat is used for training such dogs due to the ethical and legal implications associated with obtaining human material. It is the closest scent for human flesh which can used in decomposition studies. She also includes clove oil, a smelly chemical not associated with decomposition that is effective as a ‘negative control’.
Amazingly, Kip was able to identify the odours correctly derived from human decomposition. The dog was not distracted by the negative control smells. This recovery dog program is ongoing, as VR (victim recovery) dogs can be distracted by dead animals or even mushrooms when out on their actual duties. In the UK, there are approximately 70 VR dogs mostly used by police forces. These dogs are used to solve murder and suicide cases, the dogs are trained to locate body parts. In Lancashire they train their dogs to identify semen to solve sexual assault cases. In Northern Ireland, VR dogs can detect odour from an underwater human body. This is a fascinating break-through, which is yet to be used by Emergency Services in Australia.