Put a partially filled glass of water in front of most people and they will say it is either half-empty or half-full. Put the same glass before Melinda Merck, DVM, and she will see a viable source of DNA.
     “I like puzzles,” the Atlanta-based veterinarian says.
     Merck, senior director of forensics for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), uses her well-honed medical and investigative skills to gather information used to prosecute those who victimize animals.

“I’m a crime scene investigator, a medical examiner, and a forensic anthropologist.”

     After graduating from Michigan State University’s veterinary school in 1988, Merck followed a traditional career path that included opening a practice, The Cat Clinic of Roswell, in Roswell, Ga., in June 1990. She says her interest in animal cruelty prosecution was “an evolving process” triggered by seeing victims of animal cruelty in her clinic.
     In 2000, Georgia passed the Animal Cruelty Act, allowing jail terms of up to one year for general cruelty convictions and up to five years for aggravated cases. That law was Merck’s signal to get more involved.
She joined Georgia Legal Professionals for Animals — a nonprofit advocacy group — in 2003 and joined the ASPCA as a forensic veterinarian in 2007.
     Equipped with a 27-foot mobile CSI laboratory/veterinary hospital, Merck travels to some of the country’s most horrific animal cruelty scenes to unearth clues.
     “I wear a lot of different hats. I’m a crime scene investigator, a medical examiner, and a forensic anthropologist,” Merck says. “I don’t know until I get to the scene what we’re going to have. I don’t know if we’re going to have blood. I don’t know if we’re going to have graves. You usually have multiple things going on, and crime scene evidence is critical. It gets overlooked without some sort of professional assisting law enforcement.”
     Hoarding cases — where a person’s “collection” of live animals far exceeds their ability to provide proper care — are particularly challenging.
     “You’ve got massive amount of animals that are being neglected so you’ve got massive amounts of cruelty on a large scale,” Merck says. “These cases are complicated and overwhelming because every animal is considered evidence. It’s almost like a disaster response. You have to triage anybody who’s seriously ill. Then you have to identify each animal, assign some sort of number for evidence, take photographs and video, do blood testing and, at the same time, examine and process the scene.”
     Computer hard drives, paperwork, medicine vials, and even bugs are crucial investigative tools.
     “I use insect evidence, forensic entomology, to help establish how long this has been going on,” Merck explains. “There don’t have to be on deceased animals. We can find insect evidence on food or any kind of waste material. Those insects can give me timelines.”
     Although Merck is one of only a few forensic veterinarians, she expects other specialists to join her soon.
     “We’re working on developing certification programs now,” Merck says. “My goal is to train others to do animal cruelty investigations. I think there are more veterinarians who are starting to become involved.”
     In the interim, she hopes the public will continue to fight animal cruelty.
“These [prosecution] cases always get started because someone from the public noticed some warning signs of what may be cruelty and reported it,” Merck says.