GB2563208A - Forensic animal marking - Google Patents

Abstract

An animal such as a sheep or cow 2 may labelled so that, if stolen or rustled, its identity or origin can be verified. A plurality of marker micro particles 1 may be used, may be of tabular form and a maximum diameter of 1.0 mm or less, may bear alpha numeric indicia or characters unique to the object or group of objects to be marked and may be hollow having apertures through them. The particles may be made of material of high melting point and having ferromagnetic properties, used bare or encapsulated in a marker pellet. Markers 1 or marker pellets may be emplaced on skin or fleece by spatula, spray, or be injected by hypodermic needle, or fired from a gun, such that the markers or the pellet penetrate the skin and lodge within the animal 2. If the animal object 2 is stolen, marker particles 1 that have dispersed into the body or carcass of the animal 2 may be collected and their indicia read by microscope, to provide forensic evidence of the provenance of the animal 2.

Description

FORENSIC METAL MARKING

DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to the field of security marking to deter and detect theft.

More particularly, but not exclusively, it relates to a product and method for marking domestic or wild animals.

Theft or poaching of animals often occurs with the intention to sell them or parts thereof, sometimes at large scale and as part of organised crime. The prosecution of individuals under suspicion of theft or of handling stolen animals, carcasses, skins, fleece, meat or other proceeds is hampered by the difficulty of tracing the animal, presumed to be stolen or poached, back to its origin. The stolen animal may be slaughtered and its parts processed. These processes will remove or destroy most existing property marking systems, thereby rendering the animal non-traceable.

It is hence an object of the present invention to provide a means for marking animals that allows the identification of the origin of animals suspected of having been stolen, even after they were processed, and even from the wastes occurring at the processing. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method of applying such marking means in a way to prevent or obviate their removal.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided marking means for application on or within an animal, comprising a plurality of marker particles, where each marking means comprises a material which will remain stable and unreactive on or in the animal, or while the animal is being processed.

Preferably, the marking means have a generally tabular form, and comprise a metal with high melting point and ferromagnetic properties.

Advantageously, the marker particles each have a maximum diameter of no more than 1.0 mm, optionally no more than 0.5 mm, possibly not more than 0.1 mm or even not more than 0.05 mm. The marker particles may have a thickness of not more than 0.05 mm, optionally not more than 0.025 mm.

The marker particles comprise indicia comprising identification means, optionally alphanumeric indicia. Said indicia may comprise apertures extending through the respective marker particle or may be formed into the surface thereof.

The marking means may comprise a carrier body, marker pellet means, a marking device, marking tool or marking unit, where the carrier body is made of a material which can be applied to, injected or fired into the animal to be marked.

The marking means with their carrier body may be adapted to be projected from a gun barrel, advantageously from an air gun, or from a propellant gun.

Said carrier body containing marking means, intended to be fired into an animal body to be marked, may be designed either to remain closed and essentially intact after impacting the animal, or to open up and release markers within the animal. A closed carrier body being lodged in an animal body may also, advantageously, dissolve in the body, hence releasing the inert markers contained therein.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for marking an animal object to aid subsequent identification of the animal, comprising the steps of providing a marking means as described in the first aspect above, providing projector means to project the marking means onto or into a surface of the animal, and operating the projector means to propel the marking means to be applied to the surface or impact and penetrate into the animal to be marked.

The markers may remain on the surface of the animal, preferably being fixed to their location with lipid, lacquer, paint, adhesive or other liquid or solid means.

The projector or applicator means may include a brush, a spatula, a spray can or spray gun, an injection device, tattoo device or ballistic intradermal projector. It may also include a device designed to propel the markers or a carrier body at velocity, such as an air or propellant gun.

On impact the markers or their carrier body may or may not penetrate into the animal to be marked.

The projector means may comprise rifle means, optionally air rifle means. Advantageously, during operation of the projector means its muzzle is spaced from the surface of the object to be marked by a distance of between 10 and 100 millimetres.

For special purposes, such as marking a wild or dangerous animal at great risk of becoming a target for poachers, like elephant, rhinoceros or cheetah, the projector, advantageously a propellant rifle, may be used at distance from the animal object, firing a specially designed carrier body with baIIisticaIly good and non-lethal properties, to permit aiming it at a suitable and safe location on the animal and penetrating its skin to be lodged thereunder. It may also be advantageous to use a so-called paint-ball gun, with marker pellet means in the form of paint-balls, that will be crushed when impacting the animal, spraying out a patch of markers and binder on the animal's skin surface.

According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a method for collecting and identifying markers from a marked animal object, either by visual observation and collection by hand, or by using a strong magnet to collect markers, which are subsequently removed from the magnet, and which will then be applied to a suitable medium for observation and recording in a microscope, such as a microscope object glass.

The present invention employs existing markers made of metal, ceramic or other materials, with the criteria that the material of the marker has a high melting point, has a low reactivity towards the animal and any products used when processing the animal, and preferably exhibits ferromagnetic properties.

Suitable markers have the form of platelets, of a macroscopic width or diameter, conveniently of the order of 0.5 - 1.0 mm, provided with unique identification codes for each batch of markers. Thus, a specific batch of markers, typically comprising thousands of identical markers, can be used for each object or group of objects to be marked, their identification codes allowing complete certainty in identifying the objects marked.

The flat surfaces of the platelets are generally reflective, making it straightforward to spot them if exposed to light. The identification codes can take the form of alphanumeric codes, etched, moulded or embossed into the platelets; codes etched right through the platelets are most resistant to damage and easiest to read. These codes usually require observation under a low-powered optical microscope, conveniently a microscope having magnification between x50 and xlOO, to be read accurately.

Suitable marker particles of this type are previously known, including in patents US 2008/0145765A1 and US 2002/0084329A1, and are commercially available from several companies. These platelet marker particles are available in different versions having maximum diameters of 1.0 mm, 0.5 mm or 0.3 mm, while a typical platelet thickness is 0.02 mm. Other platelet marker particles are known with diameters as low as 0.05 mm.

Markers as described in US2008/0145765A1, US2003/0102661A1 and US2002/0084329A1 are made of metal with a high melting point, such as nickel, molybdenum or tungsten. Such markers can be used to mark animals with a high risk of being stolen, such as sheep. As long as the metal used for the markers is chemically unreactive or shows low reactivity on or in the animal to be marked, markers will survive and can be retrieved from the animal by visual observation and collection or, preferably, if they exhibit ferromagnetism, by magnetic collection. The markers may then be used to uniquely identify such stolen or poached animals as coming from a particular origin.

Principles for using similar markers, carrier bodies and projector means for anti-theft marking of metals are described in WO2013/128157A1. A method for marking animal feeds with markers is described in US1962/00610B1, US1964/06725B1, and using another type of marker for marking animals is described in in WO2006/119645B1.

Methods for marking and tagging animals are described in W02007/053774A1, W02002/084629A1, CA1924/44539A1, EP2013/81270A4, W02003/056354A3, CA1925/20679A1, W02009/034058A3, W02003/063059A3, US1942/60646A and US1957/90047A. Several of these use modern radio-frequency technology, however these methods will not be as permanent, resistant and able to withstand interference, and even destruction through incineration, as the present invention, while still permitting later retrieval, identification and recording of markers in order to provide clear forensic evidence.

An important effect of the publicised existence of markers applied to an animal and used for prevention of theft is that it will act as a strong deterrent to thieves.

Even if the animal has been slaughtered and its parts processed it will still be very likely that markers can be found and collected from the remnants.

Even if remnants have been incinerated at high temperature, it will still be possible to retrieve from the ashes unscathed markers with their inscriptions legible. The markers are virtually indestructible, as the melting temperature for nickel is 1455°C. For ceramic markers even higher temperatures can be withstood.

If an animal is stolen or poached, that has markers applied onto and/or fused into it, it will be difficult or impossible for the thief to find the exact locations where the markers were applied. Even if found, it will be very difficult or impossible to remove all of them. Existing marking methods, such as those described in patent applications W02002/040355A2, GB2289150A and GB2405013A, are typically based on attaching the markers to the surface of the marked object with paint or lacquer, often containing a fluorescent material to enable authorised persons to locate the markers for examination. It may then be sufficient for criminals to use an ultraviolet lamp to detect the locations and eliminate those markers.

When animals are stolen, remnants may be shredded and/or incinerated to avoid the risk of being identified as stolen. Conventional microdot markers made from paper, plastic foil and the like could be applied to the surface of an animal, but may not survive ambient exposure and processing of the animal, especially not incineration. The markers used for the present invention are made of a material that has a very high melting point and shows low reactivity towards most known reactants. It is also an advantage that the markers are ferromagnetic, facilitating their collection. However, it will still be quite difficult and time-consuming to seek to eliminate all markers by use of a magnet, many may still remain and can be found later.

If animal materials, which are suspected to be stolen, are encountered it is easy for buyers, police or customs authorities to collect samples and investigate them for existence of markers. They may be found and identified by examination with a microscope at relatively low magnification.

If markers are found within or on the surface of an animal suspected to be stolen, the alphanumeric code present on each marker can easily and rapidly be read and identified on-site with a reliability sufficient for use as evidence in a court of law, using a simple and inexpensive pocket microscope, ora small and inexpensive electro-optic microscope device of types already often used by law enforcement crime scene investigators. Many such devices are connectable to a camera or laptop computer, enabling pictures to be taken and stored, which may later be used in evidence.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the Figures of the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows, in schematic form, the process for marking an animal object (2) using a marking means (1) consisting of a platelet. Usually a multitude of platelets, called markers, will be used for marking each animal.

Figure 2 shows an animal object (2), for example a sheep, being marked by applying markers (1) , by projecting the marker (1), suspended in a suitable fluid, at velocity onto the skin and fleece surface of the animal object (2), for instance by a spray can (3) or spray gun.

Figure 3 shows markers (1), suitably suspended in a viscous fluid, being applied to the animal (2) using a spatula (4), or brush.

Figure 4 shows a marker pellet (6) containing a multitude of markers (1), being fired from the barrel (5) of an air, carbon-dioxide or propellant gun used as an applicator, launcher or projector.

Figure 5 shows a cross-section through typical animal skin (7-8), displaying the layers epidermis and dermis (7), subcutaneous tissue (8), and muscle (9), and how markers may be introduced by hypodermic needle intra-dermally in the skin (10), subcutaneously (11), or by injecting or firing a carrier body containing markers to be lodged subcutaneously (12), or intramuscularly (13).

Figure 6 shows how markers or a carrier body containing markers are fired, at close range onto the skin or into the animal (2), by an air gun (14). The carrier and its marker particles may thus be permanently sealed within the animal object (2).

Figure 7 shows how a carrier body containing markers can be fired from a propellant rifle (15) , into an animal (16), at range, in this case to mark a wild animal, such as an elephant (16) .

Figure 8 shows how markers or a carrier body containing markers can be applied onto or into an animal (2) using a syringe (17) provided with a hypodermic needle.

Figure 9 shows an example of the identification process where markers (1) collected are put on a substrate, such as a microscope object glass (18), and viewed in a microscope (19) to read and record the identification indicia present on each marker, and subsequently to compare the indicia found to a database with records of to which animals or group of animals these marking means had been applied.

Examples of the invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the figures.

The marker particles (1, figure 1) that are currently preferred have a maximum diameter of about 0.5 mm, and can be obtained in sizes up to 1.0 mm, so they are easy to see with a simple optical microscope (19), and may even be identifiable by eye. The indicia on the marker particles (1) will be legible at relatively low magnifications (e.g. x50 to xlOO). The indicia on the marker particles (1) can then be compared to a database of where the corresponding batch of marker particles (1) was originally deployed, demonstrating and providing forensic proof of the provenance of the animal marked. Since the indicia can be easily and rapidly identified they may provide judicial authorities with sufficient evidence to be able to retain suspected perpetrators in custody, rather than having to release them pending future forensic examination.

The animal object to be marked can either receive marker particles (1) on the surface, on skin or in fleece, suitably fixed by a lipid, paint or adhesive, as shown in figures 2 and 3. They can be applied by spray gun or spray can (3) or by spatula (4) or brush. They may also, as shown in figure 4 be propelled from a gun barrel (5), preferably contained in a marker pellet (6).

As illustrated in figure 5 the marker particles (1) may be injected by hypodermic needle into the skin (10) or subcutaneously (11), self-contained or in a marker pellet. If fired from a gun barrel the marker pellet will suitably lodge subcutaneously (12), or within muscle (13).

The projector means, shown in figures 6 and 7, may comprise an air gun (14), suitably applied at short distance from the animal to be marked, or a propellant gun (15) which will permit firing a marker pellet (6) containing markers (1) at distance from the animal object to be marked (16). Also a so-called paint-ball gun may be used at distance to fire a frangible marker pellet, in order to distribute markers and a binder liquid over an area of the skin of an animal (16). A syringe (17) as shown in figure 8, provided with a suitable hypodermic needle, may be used to inject markers or marker particles into the animal to be marked (2), as described in figure 5. Similarly, injection may also occur by means of a needle-free jet injector device, such as commonly used at vaccine inoculations, or, for intradermal injection, by a tattoo device or ballistic injection device.

Figure 9, finally, depicts one or several markers (1) having been collected from the proceeds of an animal suspected to be stolen or poached, being put on a microscope object glass (18).

It will then be observed in the microscope (19), and its alphanumeric identification code read and recorded, for subsequent comparison with a set of database recordings containing information on which specific animals were marked with the recorded code, hence providing secure forensic evidence for use by police, other judicial authorities and in a court of law.

Even if a processor of suspected stolen or poached animals is aware that marker particles (1) may be present in an animal object (2), it is extremely unlikely that he or she will be able to remove all the marker particles (1). The effort needed to try to scrape off, collect or otherwise remove all of the multitude of marker particles (1) would probably make such a process highly uneconomic, and would thus serve to remove the value of the stolen matter to the thief, in itself creating a strong deterrent to theft. Retrieval of even one single marker from an animal, its carcass or other remnants would create positive evidence of the animal's provenance.

However, if meat, skin or fleece were to undergo industrial processing, it should be possible to remove all markers, in particular by using magnetic collection in combination with the washing of skin, pelt or fleece. Also if meat from the animal will be legally processed it should be relatively simple to remove all markers and marker pellets - in fact not much different from the removal of lead shot from game meat. Typically for such animals the marker pellets would, preferably, be lodged subcutaneously or on the skin. The markers used are very thin and are not expected to interfere with, for instance, wool shears.

Claims (22)

1. Marking means for application onto or incorporation into an animal object to aid subsequent identification of said animal or products processed therefrom, comprising a plurality of marker particles, wherein each said marker particle comprises a material that does not react with or dissolve in said animal or materials used when said animal is processed, and wherein each said marker particle bears identification means.

2. Marking means as claimed in claim 1, wherein the marker particles have a generally tabular form.

3. Marking means as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein each said marker particle comprises a material of a high melting point and ferromagnetic properties.

4. Marking means as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the marker particles have a maximum diameter of no more than 1.0 mm.

5. Marking means as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the marker particles have a thickness of no more than 0.05 mm.

6. Marking means as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein each marker particle comprises indicia comprising said identification means.

7. Marking means as claimed in in any one of the preceding claims, wherein said indicia either comprise apertures extending completely through or are formed into the surface of each respective marker particle.

8. Marking means as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, with a carrier body enclosing said plurality of marker particles wherein said carrier body comprises a material capable of being applied to, injected or fired into the animal to be marked.

9. Marking means as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, adapted to be projected from an elongate tube, such as gun barrel means.

10. Marking means as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, contained in a carrier body, wherein said carrier body remains closed and essentially intact after impacting the animal to be marked.

11. Marking means as claimed in claims 1-9, contained in a carrier body, wherein said carrier body opens up and releases markers contained therein after impacting the animal to be marked.

12. Marking means as claimed in claims 1-9, contained in a carrier body, wherein said carrier body is made of a material that will dissolve or break down after being lodged in the animal to be marked for a period of time, and whereby the said carrier body will release markers contained therein.

13. A method for marking an animal object to aid subsequent identification of the animal or parts therefrom, comprising the steps of providing marking means as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, providing projector means to project the marking means onto a surface or into the body of said animal object, and operating the projector means.

14. A method for marking an animal object as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the marking means are fixed in place with lipid, lacquer, paint, adhesive or other liquid or solid means.

15. A method for marking an animal object as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, where the marking means are applied to the animal to be marked by means of a spatula, brush, spray can, pumped or pneumatic spray gun.

16. A method for marking an animal object as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the marking means, separately or included in a carrier body, are applied to the surface of the animal to be marked.

17. A method for marking an animal object as claimed in claims 1-13, wherein the marking means, separately or included in a carrier body, penetrate into the animal to be marked.

18. A method for marking an animal object as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the projector means comprises air or propellant gun means.

19. A method for marking an animal object, as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein operation of the projector means occurs very close to the object to be marked.

20. A method for marking an animal object, as claimed in claims 1 to 18, wherein operation of the projector means occurs at distance to the animal object to be marked, and where it can be aimed at a suitable location on the animal object.

21. A method for marking an animal object, as claimed in claims 1 to 19, wherein the projector means comprises hypodermic needle means, needle-free liquid jet injector means, tattoo device means or ballistic intradermal injection means to propel the markers into the animal.

22. A method for marking an animal object, as contained in any one of the preceding claims, where the marking means applied to an animal may be found and retrieved, either by visual observation and by hand, or by collecting them with magnet means, and subsequently observing, identifying and recording by microscope means, and comparing with database recording means containing information on the provenance and legitimate ownership of the animal to which said marking means had been applied.