Posted: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 12:00 am
Beginning this summer, the Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division will embark on a two-year pilot wildlife forensics investigation program funded with $25,000 donated by Oregon hunting organizations, including $17,800 from the Oregon Hunters Association.
The ability for Oregon State Police to include DNA analysis in their investigations will be a significant additional tool for apprehending and successfully prosecuting poachers and others who break laws designed to protect wildlife.
Although the Oregon State Police has a forensics lab, it does not do wildlife DNA work. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintains a wildlife forensics lab in Ashland, but because of its heavy workload is unable to regularly assist OSP in their investigations.
An example of a situation where DNA analysis will help OSP in boosting prosecutions would be when meat or other animal parts are found in the possession of a poaching suspect. By comparing DNA samples from the animal parts with those taken from the illegally killed animal at the scene, investigating officers can tell whether they are both one and the same animal.
To implement the pilot project, OSP has signed an agreement with Idaho Fish and Game, which has a wildlife forensics laboratory in Caldwell, Idaho. Over the course of the next two years, scientists at the lab will conduct DNA analysis on evidence that OSP officers provide them and charge on a per case basis. Idaho Fish and Game also has supplied OSP with DNA collection kits to help officers gather the needed evidence for analysis.
"Our plan is to put the word out that we have this technology at our disposal," said OSP Fish and Wildlife Division officer Lt. Dave Cleary. "It's going to help when it comes to people who aren't cooperating with an investigation and we have DNA evidence that ties them to a crime scene."
The idea for a wildlife forensics investigation program originated in 2007 when Rick Williams, vice president of the Oregon Hunters Association and George Houston, president of the Oregon Chapter of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, began discussing how their organizations could help the Oregon State Police in their wildlife violations investigations in the wake of an illegal killing of a bighorn sheep in Malheur County.
"OSP told us that helping them develop a way to collect and analyze DNA evidence would be the best way to help them prosecute the most people and give the most bang for the buck," Williams said.