The ‘canine rescue’ phenomenon

Abstract

While deaths caused by interactions with dogs in medico-legal situations most often involve trauma from attacks, in certain circumstances, deaths may occur from sharing environmental hazards that the animal has been exposed to during attempted rescues. Search of the Forensic Science South Australia (FSSA), Australia, autopsy database over a 16-year period from 2004 to 2020 found three such cases, including two women aged 46 and 61 years who were both killed in separate incidents after being struck by vehicles when they attempted to rescue dogs that had strayed onto busy roads. The final case was a 53-year-old man who drowned in a river while trying to rescue his dog. A review of Internet databases and news sources revealed other cases where would-be dog rescuers had drowned in rivers and the sea or had succumbed to hypothermia in frozen lakes and waterways. Other hazardous situations involve house fires, falls from heights, electrocution and envenomation. The characteristic features of these cases are of a dog (often a pet) getting itself into, or being found in, a dangerous situation, with owners or bystanders then attempting rescue. The dangers of the situation are either ignored or underestimated by the rescuers who often also misjudge the capacity of dogs to survive/self-rescue. Cases may therefore be encountered in forensic investigations where death or serious injury has occurred during attempts to protect an animal from particular types of environmental dangers. Unlike the owners, it is not infrequently documented that the dogs have survived the danger unharmed.