by Justin Nobel
"Life-weariness and the determination to end miseries in a sudden manner are not confined to the human race," reads an 1878 article in "The Popular Science Monthly". The paper provides colorful examples of horses and dogs that have committed suicide. (Photo courtesy of NOAA)
An 8 year-old lowland gorilla named Muchana was found dead in his sleeping quarters at the St. Louis Zoo, last Spring. He had pulled apart his climbing rope and become entangled. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claimed negligence, pointing out that the zoo had been fined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the connection with the death of two polar bears in 2007. Some reports suggested that Muchana may have committed suicide. Native American beliefs accommodate such an outcome, but what about Western ones?
“It has been asserted that ‘mere brutes’ never commit suicide,” reads an article in The Popular Science Monthly, from 1878. “This is a wanton, it might be said an impudent, assumption.”
Birds, reptiles and other caged animals can persistently refuse food; isn’t that suicide, the article argues.
More clear-cut animal suicides exist too. The article continues: “There are many instances among domestic animals, proving that life-weariness and the determination to end miseries in a sudden manner are not confined to the human race.” Read the rest of this entry »
by Justin Nobel
The Cove, a documentary that covertly captures a dolphin slaughter in the Japanese fishing village of Taiji, won the Audience Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The protagonist is Richard O’Barry, Flipper's former trainer. He became a rabid animal rights crusader after Cathy the dolphin committed suicide in his arms.
Just before Earth Day, in 1970, Cathy the dolphin committed suicide in Richard O’Barry’s arms, changing his life forever.
“She looked me right in the eye, took a breath, held it—and she didn’t take another one,” O’Barry recently told New York Magazine. “She just sank to the bottom of the water. That had a profound effect on me.”
O’Barry helped capture and train the dolphins on “Flipper”, which didn’t exactly make him a friend of animal rights activists. Now, he is the star of one of the biggest animal rights films in years, “The Cove”, a documentary that covertly captures a dolphin slaughter in the Japanese fishing village of Taiji. He credits Cathy’s suicide as the turning point that transformed him from animal captor to animal liberator.
For Americans, O’Barry’s suicide story may seem ridiculous. Science tells us that animals can’t intentionally kill themselves. But Native Americans view animal suicide, and death in general much differently.
“The non-native mindset is so fearful,” said Maya Piñon, a Native-born naturalist who is working on a book about animal suicide. “The culture to which I was born tells me there is nothing to fear about death. Sure, you fight to live as long as you can but when that moment comes you’re like, ‘Okay, game over, I’ve gone on to the next dimension.’” Read the rest of this entry »
by Justin Nobel
Beethoven’s skull shattered during his autopsy. Later, his skeleton was exhumed for relocation and a physician named Gerhard von Breuning swiped several skull fragments. They have been lost, almost sold, shipped across an ocean and now reside at San Jose State University.
Beethoven died in his Vienna apartment on March 26, 1827. He was fifty-six; the cause of death was dropsy, an infectious disease common to fish. Dr. Johann Wagner performed an autopsy. He sawed off the top of Beethoven’s skull and removed it like a cap. Wagner’s work was crude and the skull shattered. The temporal bones were removed for study, in the hope they would reveal something about Beethoven’s deafness—these pieces were never seen again. The remaining skull fragments were reconfigured with gauze and buried with his body at Währing Cemetery.
In 1863, the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna arranged for the bodies of Beethoven and composer Franz Schubert to be dug up and reburied in more elaborate vaults. The Society wanted the shape of his skull analyzed in order to determine clues about his mental faculties and assigned the task to Gerhard von Breuning, a physician who had personally known Beethoven. Unexpectedly, the study was canceled and the skeleton was reburied in the new vault. However, unbeknownst to anyone, von Breuning kept a handful of skull fragments. Read the rest of this entry »
by Justin Nobel
Shannon and Jeff Conlon's new show is about female morticians. Other projects focus on Wall Street women and pole dancers. “We take shows about strong women with preconceived notions that we’re trying to shatter,” says Shannon. (Photo Courtesy of One-Run Entertainment)
People do one of three things when they meet a female mortician: take a step back, begin asking questions or flee.
“In what other line of work do you tell someone what you do and get such violent reactions?” said Shannon Conlon.
Shannon and her brother, Jeff, run One-Run Entertainment, a documentary television and film company based in Los Angeles. Their latest show is about females in the funeral industry and will discuss what motivates women to join the profession and how they maintain zesty social lives.
“For the last ten years the industry has primarily been dominated by women,” said Shannon, “but the perception has not caught on. Everyone still thinks it’s some crazy old man.”
Read the rest of this entry »
by Justin Nobel
Penn State University researchers are recording the chemical signatures from decomposing pigs in an effort to better understand the smells that a rotting corpse gives off. Their goal is to create an "electronic nose" that may eventually put cadaver dogs out of business. (Photo Courtesy of Sarah Jones/Penn State)
Cadaver dogs have been sniffing around Phillip Garrido’s backyard.
The case of Garrido, who was arrested in California last month on suspicion of kidnapping an 11 year-old girl and holding her hostage for 18 years, highlights the role of the special canines used by police to locate bodies.
Different than Bloodhounds, which focus on a particular scent, cadaver dogs are trained to track a range of decompositional smells. They can locate bodies just hours after death or find ones that have been rotting for 20 years. Police hope the cadaver dogs searching Garrido’s yard will unearth clues to a series of unsolved prostitute murders from the 1990s.
The first dog used exclusively for cadaver work was a yellow lab named Pearl, in 1974, according to the “Cadaver Dog Handbook: forensic training and tactics for the recovery of human remains.” Pearl was trained at a military research station in San Antonio, Texas. Her first assignment was for the New York State Police, who were looking for bodies in an upstate forest. Pearl unearthed the corpse of a Syracuse College student that was buried four feet deep. Read the rest of this entry »
