Archeologists Argue for Multiple Domestication Events

Genome studies have resulted in different theories as to the epicenter of canine domestication, being either East Asia, the Middle East, or Africa. These conflicting results are further muddied by archeological investigations that place domestication either about 15,000 years ago, consistent with some of the genome results, or perhaps twice that far back, which can also be conformed to some largely earlier genetic studies. Two recent archeological...

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Jumping into Cars: New Fact Situations, but Courts Continue to Apply Faulty Logic

Every officer patrolling with a narcotics detection dog knows that if the dog jumps through an open window or door of a vehicle during a sweep, the dog’s action does not violate the Fourth Amendment if the officer did not ask the occupants to roll down the window or open the door so that the dog could jump in and the officer did not encourage the dog to jump in during the sweep. (See, e.g., U.S. v. Stone, 866 F.2d 359 (10th Cir. 1989).)There have...

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Red Cross, Iron Cross: Ambulance Dogs in World War I

Kaiser Wilhelm II knew the value of Red Cross dogs (Sanitätshunde). Visiting a hospital behind German lines on the eastern front, he saw a soldier on one cot, a dog beside him on the next. He was told the story: "Lieutenant von Wieland led a party of men in an attack on the Russian trenches. Seeing the task hopeless on account of the Russian fire, he, wounded, sent back the men who had set out with him and lay there in the blood and muck and filth...

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Getting Paid for Taking Service Dog Cases: Thank the Law Gods for Appellate Courts

In October 2005, Charles Williams, a paraplegic, entered a Hilton Hotel franchise in Long Beach, California, with his service dog and requested a room. He was refused accommodations and told to leave the premises. In 2009¸a jury found that the Hilton franchise had violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act and had negligently trained and supervised its employees, awarding Williams $14,200 in damages, but rejected Williams’ claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The trial court granted the Hotel’s motion for summary judgment...

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Don’t Forget Why You Made a Traffic Stop, or a Sniff Might Get Thrown Out

Probably all law enforcement officials in the country—certainly all police dog handlers—know the basic holding in Caballes, that a sweep by a drug dog during a lawful traffic stop, which does not reveal information other than the location of a substance that no individual has any right to possess, does not implicate the Fourth Amendment and, therefore, does not require reasonable, articulable suspicion. One word that it is critical to keep in mind in such stops, however, is “during.” A Georgia case shows that if the purpose of the stop is abandoned,...

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