A dog's life: Multiple trauma and potential abuse in a medieval dog from Guimps (Charente, France)

Rescue excavations carried out around Guimps (Charente, France) in 2011 unearthed several medieval structures, including a silo containing a single dog burial. The animal, a young adult, exhibits numerous skeletal lesions. The excellent preservation of the remains allowed us to carry out a retrospective diagnosis and to demonstrate the presence of two independent pathologies, a radius-curvus and a medial patellar dislocation. These conditions are of traumatic origin, as are the many fractures the animal also displays. The possible causes of such multiple injuries are discussed and the chronology of the lesions and their skeletal distribution are examined in light of modern data. This leads us to suggest animal abuse as a probable cause and, as almost no comparable cases were found in the bibliographical record, raise the profile of the identification of animal abuse in archeology.

► A dog skeleton was excavated from a medieval storage pit in Guimps (France).
► The animal presents numerous osteological lesions, including a medial patellar dislocation and an uncommon case of radius-curvus.
► The lesions are shown to be all of traumatic origin and occurred in at least three independent events.
► The chronology and the skeletal distribution of the trauma are typical of modern-day animal abuse.