Dog called to testify in court during French murder case

A dog was recently interrogated in a French court in an effort to identify the man believed to have murdered the pooch’s owner.

During a recent preliminary hearing in the city of Tours the judge called a nine-year-old Labrador named Tango to the witness stand in an attempt to confirm the allegations against his master’s presumed killer. The judge ordered the suspect to threaten Tango with a bat, with the idea being that Tango’s reactions could be used to identify or rule out the suspect.



And in a nod to the scientific method of keeping tests fair, a second dog named Norman, of the same age and breed as Tango, was brought in to serve as the 'control group'. The suspect’s lawyer, Gregoire Lafarge, said the whole thing was totally absurd. “So if Tango lifted his right paw, moved his mouth or his tail, is he recognizing my client or not?” Lafarge said.

“I find it very troubling for the French legal system. If a judge ignores the demands of reason and surrounds himself with experts who are unreasonable, well the system becomes very dangerous.” The experiment ended up being a total failure and Tango and Norman were allowed to return to their dogs’ lives.