Established | 1988 |
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Director | Ken Goddard |
Location | Ashland, Oregon, USA |
Affiliations | CITES |
Operating Agency | United States Fish and Wildlife Service |
The National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory is located in Ashland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1988 and run by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the forensics laboratory is the only such laboratory in the world devoted to wildlife law enforcement. By treaty, the forensics laboratory is also the official crime lab for CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) and the Wildlife Group of Interpol. Ken Goddard serves as the current Lab Director.
The primary mission of the laboratory is to identify the species or subspecies of pieces, parts or products of an animal to determine cause-of-death of an animal, to help wildlife officers determine if a violation of law has occurred and to identify and compare physical evidence in an attempt to link suspect, victim and crime scene.
The forensics laboratory staff is divided into four major categories: