A necropsy and animal welfare breach

I poked into the pathology department at the other day, to see if there was anything interesting ex-animal coming in, so that I could excuse myself from studying and get some action. Fortunately for me, there was a 9 yo female dog with maxillary mass extending towards the level of the eye and ventral (towards the abdomen ie. lower) aspect of the maxilla, infiltrating the gum and extending caudally two third of the oral maxilla. The mass height was 10cm, so basically, the head just looked grossly abnormal that even kids can tell.

Let's see what is there.

History: the animal was seized by an animal welfare organisation, and was euthanised on humane ground. A full post-mortem/PM (after death) examination is requested.

Every now and then, there is a case related to animal cruelty comes through the department. A full necropsy (exmination of corpse, in particular non-human bodies: I tend to use PM and necropsy interchangeably, while refer an autopsy to human bodies) is required for the purpose of lawsuit against the suspected offender, therefore professional opinion and comments from a veterinary pathologist is sought in regard to the nature, manner of lesions (abnormal tissue, change of tissue) and/or death.

In general sense, a mass lesion could be anything ranging from a cyst, abscess, naevus to neoplasm (abonormal growth eg tumour). However, some sort of a tumour was very likely given the extension and distribution of the mass. Soft tissue sarcoma (cancer of connective tissue) came to my head as I palpated the structure, so the differentials goes a long way as there are several types, but I had fibrosarcoma (malignant tumour of collagen-producing cell) on the top of differentials.

We did a fine needle aspirate/FNA which is sticking a needle into the mass and retrieving a sample for microscopic examinations. When the sample staining was done a few hours later, I was quite content that I am right. The cells on the slide looked crazy, which is a typical appearance of neoplastic (abnormal and out of control) fibrocytes. It is now likely that the dog was neglected, and left to suffer from the tumour. A necropsy report is written to be provided to court as evidence and a source of expert opinion.

And I was left thinking: how and why on earth people can be be so retarded and ignorant, and leave animals to suffer? The cost of euthania is definitely not a valid excuse, since it will only cost like AUD$20 in animal welfare hospitals and some even put animals down without cost. Or even just surrender them to any animal shelter.