THERE IS a certain irony in the headline published on Page 3 of Friday's edition of The Gleaner 'Autopsy clears dogs', referring to the post-mortem examination on the body of Amy Murphy who died at the Golden Age Home in Vineyard Town, Kingston 3, in the early hours of January 22 this year.
The official autopsy report suggests she died of heart-related illnesses and that the dog bites on her body seem to have been inflicted after she collapsed and lay dying. The irony in the headline lies in the fact that the dogs have been cleared but the culpability of humans in this sorry saga have yet to be clearly established.
We should not forget that Ms. Murphy was in the twilight of her years 81 in fact, clearly ill and particularly vulnerable. We would have expected that when elderly people are placed in institutions of care, that special efforts would be made to protect them from predators of whatever kind, and that special vigilance is paid to those who are prone to wander.
All the reports at the time of her death indicate that she may have wandered to a section of the compound where she fell victim to her illness and subsequently the dogs. The concern which we expressed in these columns in our January 25th edition, remain. It is unacceptable that an ailing Ms. Murphy should have been left on her own for so long a period that her body was not discovered for several hours. She was not in a house by her self. She was in an institution under the supervision of officers of the state.
The autopsy report would lend support to the observations of veterinarian Dr. St. Aubyn Bartlett who said in January that it was not normally the behaviour of the kind of dogs found on the compound of the Golden Age Home, to attack human beings as food.
So it would be fair to conclude that in the immediate aftermath of Ms. Murphy's death, the dogs became convenient 'scapegoats'.
Yet, we would want to believe that despite the initial attempt to deflect blame, many of the employees in the Golden Age Home are committed to the welfare of the inmates. Our main concern is not so much that persons be punished but that systems be implemented to ensure there is never a recurrence.
Some improvements to the security of the premises have been done since Ms Murphy's death. For the sake of the other inmates, it is imperative that these be maintained and improved upon.
There is a wry note of sorts that belongs in this long delayed wake to this episode. Those who promptly punished the canine scapegoats now hasten to add that their deaths were administered "in the most humane way possible".
Consolation, no doubt, for animal lovers.
