DNA evidence has proven so useful in police work that, the US Department of Justice is developing a bank of DNA culled from ordinary house cats, reports the SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER. No, there isnt a feline delinquency problem spreading across the US. It turns out that criminals who own cats frequently have cat hair on their clothes, just like law-abiding cat owners. Some of that cat hair winds up at crime scenes, and can provide important clues to solving a crime if it can be traced to an individual cat, and from there to its owner. The DOJ is asking cat owners to voluntarily send in a sample of Fluffys genetic material (although why the criminally inclined would do so is a mystery). Cat-based crime fighting has already borne fruit: A man in Canada was convicted of murdering his ex-wife, based partially on the fact that hair from his cat, Snowball, was found at the murder scene. Snowball was questioned and released.
-- At 09:20 AM 9/9/2000 -0700, A. Melon wrote:
Some of that cat hair winds up at crime scenes, and can provide important clues to solving a crime if it can be traced to an individual cat, and from there to its owner. The DOJ is asking cat owners to voluntarily send in a sample of Fluffys genetic material
No sillier than gun control laws. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG Qvi+22lHbYjc/uDiq/wCio5RxLzD35y01dFGfFbT 4unQ/SkRlOCityuei6yEbm2s1ulzWrZ+vnkyN8rIT
"James A. Donald" wrote:
At 09:20 AM 9/9/2000 -0700, A. Melon wrote:
Some of that cat hair winds up at crime scenes, and can provide important clues to solving a crime if it can be traced to an individual cat, and from there to its owner. The DOJ is asking cat owners to voluntarily send in a sample of Fluffys genetic material
No sillier than gun control laws.
Potentially even more infringing on rights, though, at least in the US. We have the 2nd Amendment, which keeps some of the police state behavior at bay. I can't think, offhand, of any provision in the US Constitution which would prevent City Hall from mandating a hair sample from every pet. New York constitution neither, though that's so cumbersome and poorly organized that there might be something tucked away. -- Steve Furlong, Computer Condottiere Have GNU, will travel 518-374-4720 sfurlong@acmenet.net
At 12:21 PM 9/9/00 -0400, A. Melon wrote:
DNA evidence has proven so useful in police work that, the US Department of Justice is developing a bank of DNA culled from ordinary house cats, reports the SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER.
I had the misfortune to awaken to an NPR report about this. What they are assembling is not a full sequencing of Felix (first they'll do mice or chimps, after people) but a map of 'markers', which are the little fragments that individuals have or don't have. They need to know how these are distributed in catdom and vary between the races of cats ---just like they do for humans (the one-in-a-zillion paternity- or forensic- type stats are conditional on race). Clearly cypherpunks need to pass around a bowl of cat hair at the next meeting... give a little, take a little.. the host isn't allergic, is he?
participants (4)
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A. Melon -
David Honig -
James A. Donald -
Steven Furlong