http://ocpets.ocregister.com/2010/06...-created/50195

A criminal dog-fighting DNA database has been created to help the criminal justice system investigate and prosecute dog-fighting cases, it was announced Wednesday.

Known as the Canine CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), the database will be maintained by the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at UC Davis.

The Canine CODIS was established by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Humane Society of Missouri and the Louisiana SPCA. The database is similar to the FBI’s human CODIS, a computerized archive that stores DNA profiles from criminal offenders and crime scenes and is used in criminal and missing-person investigations.

“Dog fighting is a multimillion dollar criminal enterprise that leads to the cruel treatment and deaths of thousands of dogs nationwide every year,” said Tim Rickey, the ASPCA’s senior director of Field Investigation and Response and former Animal Cruelty Task Force director at the Humane Society of Missouri.

According to the ASPCA, the Canine CODIS contains DNA profiles from dogs that have been seized during dog-fighting investigations and from unidentified samples collected at suspected dog-fighting venues. This includes 400 original and initial samples of dog DNA supplied by the Humane Society of Missouri and collected from dogs that were seized in July 2009 during the nation’s largest dog-fighting raid.

DNA analysis and matching through the canine database, available for a fee only to law enforcement agencies, will help to identify relationships between dogs. This will enable investigators to establish connections between breeders, trainers and dog-fight operators. Blood collected from dog fighting sites also will be searched against the Canine CODIS database to identify the source.