My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 266

“They’d probably sell them off, big or small, right?”

“Right?”

“And from what I see…”

Park Do-joon examined the dogs.

“These dogs don’t look very young, do they? How long ago did they take over and shut down this dog farm?”

“Hmm? About a year, I guess.”

If they took over a year ago and shut down the dog farm, logically, they would have sold off all the adult dogs in the meantime.

“Excuse me, are you the veterinarian?”

Park Do-joon, feeling a sense of unease, addressed the man examining the dogs’ corpses nearby. It seemed they had called in a veterinarian specifically because the case involved dogs.

“Yes, what is it?”

“How old are these dogs?”

“Their age? Let’s see…”

At Park Do-joon’s question, the veterinarian checked the dead dogs’ teeth and examined them more closely.

“Usually, they’re about two to three years old. The big ones look about four years old.”

“Two to four years?”

“That’s a rough estimate, right?”

“Are there any under a year old?”

“No, the youngest is at least two years old.”

At that, the team leader and Lee Ji-soo exchanged strange looks. This contradicted the initial theory that stray dogs from the abandoned dog farm had formed a pack and attacked.

Because it hadn’t even been a year since the dog farm went bankrupt.

“Do they usually raise dogs for meat for about a year?”

“Well…”

The veterinarian frowned at the question. From his perspective, the idea of eating dog meat was unpleasant. But he shook his head, reminding himself that his input was necessary for the investigation.

“These mixed-breed dogs don’t take that long. About eight months…? They’re adults by then. In fact, they don’t get any bigger if you raise them longer.”

In other words, meat dog farms usually raise them for about eight months before selling them off.

“The Daeguk Group wouldn’t have left the moment they were told to leave.”

They probably had enough time to raise and dispose of the dogs on the farm before leaving.

“So, normally, there shouldn’t be any dogs older than two years here, right?”

“That’s right. They would have sold them off.”

The team leader’s face hardened. It was inevitable. If the dogs weren’t abandoned, it meant someone had released them deliberately.

“Just one more question. Is it common for dogs to form such large packs?”

“Well? It’s quite rare, isn’t it?”

Korea isn’t an environment where such large dog packs can easily form. If dogs were to gather like this, the authorities would typically catch them and remove them.

“Couldn’t they band together because the environment is different here?”

“Well, maybe, but feral dogs usually become more aggressive. Rather than meeting other groups and merging, they tend to fight each other.”

“A kind of territorial dispute?”

“That’s right.”

Park Do-joon nodded. He didn’t know the minds of animals, but he understood the concept of territorial disputes.

“Then, what’s the overall condition of these dogs?”

“They’re dead, aren’t they?”

“No, not that, but their nutritional status, the condition of their teeth…”

“Teeth?”

“Yes, I heard somewhere that animals’ teeth change depending on what they eat?”

“That’s certainly true… Ah, just a moment.”

The veterinarian seemed to sense something was amiss and began to examine the dogs more closely than before. Park Do-joon also carefully examined the dogs.

“What’s strange?”

“Yes.”

“What is it, Detective Park?”

“Well, the dogs are a bit thin, but… how should I put it, their condition is surprisingly uniform, you could say?”

“Uniform?”

The team leader and Jung I-yeon didn’t understand and asked for clarification.

‘Something’s off.’

Park Do-joon also felt something was strange, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. A sense of incongruity that didn’t align with his knowledge?

At that moment, the veterinarian, who was examining the dogs from behind, offered his assessment.

“You’re probably saying that because they’re all vaguely malnourished. I just realized it now too.”

“Is that strange?”

Park Do-joon was a profiler, but he didn’t know the specific behaviors of dogs, so he deferred to the veterinarian.

“Yes, I thought it was strange after hearing what you said, Detective, so I looked into it. As you said, it’s highly unlikely for all the dogs to maintain this uniformly slightly malnourished state in a pack of stray dogs.”

“Unlikely?”

“Because they’re not human. No, even humans couldn’t easily manage that. There’s a hierarchy, after all.”

“Ah!”

Park Do-joon finally understood the source of his unease. Hierarchy. In the animal world, hierarchy is absolute. Everything, from eating and sleeping to even reproduction, is dictated by the established hierarchy.

“If these dogs were a real pack of stray dogs, they couldn’t all be uniformly thin.”

The highest-ranking dog would eat first and would be well-nourished. Conversely, the lower the rank, the less they would eat, and naturally, the lower-ranking dogs would be emaciated.

“But looking at the nutritional status of these dogs, they’re all in a slightly malnourished state. As if someone was giving them food little by little to each of them.”

Since they were each given food separately, they all showed a uniformly slight state of malnutrition.

“And as you said, I examined their teeth, and these guys grew up eating commercial feed.”

“Feed? Are you sure?”

“Yes, no one would regularly feed a dangerous pack of stray dogs high-quality feed.”

If they were being protected while eating food provided by humans, they couldn’t accurately be called a pack of stray dogs. They would simply be abandoned dogs being cared for.

“Their teeth are different, as you said.”

If these dogs were truly feral, they would have to hunt animals in the surrounding forest. Naturally, they would have to chew on hard bones. If that were the case, there should be some wear and tear on their teeth.

But these dogs don’t have those traces. That strongly suggests they grew up eating soft feed.

“All of these dogs?”

There were as many as thirty dogs. Were these dogs raised in a pack and then unleashed like stray dogs, resulting in people’s deaths?

“Is this possible?”

“It might be possible. Attempts to train animals to use them as killing machines are ongoing in certain circles.”

There are military dogs and police dogs, after all. Of course, they aren’t explicitly raised as killing tools, but they are trained to perform specific tasks according to commands.

“Is it possible to train dogs to kill effectively?”

Park Do-joon asked the veterinarian, just in case. And the veterinarian nodded.

“It’s possible. In some ways, dogs are physically stronger than humans. In fact, a human can only reliably beat a dog in a one-on-one situation. Even in a two-on-one situation, humans would struggle.”

“What if all thirty dogs were trained?”

“The people who were there… they would all be dead.”

Everyone’s face hardened at those words.

Because they were all sensing that the situation was taking a dark and unexpected turn.

“Here it is.”

The team leader handed Park Do-joon the documents sent by the police station as he entered the office. It was a detailed record of the incident.

“There were a total of seven people at the scene. Four of them died, and three were seriously injured.”

“Okay.”

Park Do-joon frowned as he reviewed the state of the bodies. Perhaps because they were killed by animals, the scene was particularly gruesome.

“Hong Geun-jong’s arms and legs are severely mauled.”

“It seems the dogs kept biting him relentlessly.”

The reason Hong Geun-jong was able to survive was because he managed to crawl under a vehicle at the last moment. He fought to stay alive by kicking and hitting the dogs that were trying to drag him out from under the car, and thanks to that desperate struggle, he managed to save his life.

Because other employees who heard the screams rushed over and chased the dogs away.

Of course, that process wasn’t easy either, and dozens of people were injured in the process. Eventually, they even used vehicles to drive the dogs away.

“Ji-soo, don’t you find anything strange about this case?”

“Um, well… I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay not to know. It’s not like anyone can truly know the mind of a dog. But look at this picture, and imagine you’re the one training these dogs.”

“So…”

“If you wanted to ensure a kill, how would you train the dogs? When you absolutely needed to eliminate the target.”

“That’s…”

And the team leader’s reaction was faster.

“The neck.”

“That’s right, isn’t it?”

The deceased were all attacked in the neck. The neck is a vulnerable point for most animals. When predatory animals hunt, they often target the neck to quickly incapacitate their prey.

“People would have resisted. I understand that. But every single one of them had their necks bitten. You could attribute it to instinct… But is it really just instinct?”

The time it took for people to rush over after hearing the screams was very short. Hong Geun-jong wouldn’t have parked his car far away and walked, to begin with.

It was a temporary parking lot, and there were vehicles nearby, so the people who gathered could have used the vehicles to drive the dogs away more quickly.

“In that short amount of time, all the dogs targeted the neck and killed people? Is it just a coincidence?”

It’s highly improbable that it was a coincidence. In fact, the survivors also sustained severe injuries to their necks.

“Someone trained them to specifically target the neck?”

“That’s very likely. They take that into account when training police dogs.”

“Police dogs?”

“Ah, what do you think is the reason why they wear thick protective gear on their arms and legs when training police dogs or military dogs for attacks?”

Simply to protect the trainee? No, police dogs and military dogs aren’t intended to be killing machines. The purpose of those dogs is to subdue and control people. Training dogs to kill people indiscriminately isn’t efficient, and if they killed people like that, it would be a disaster.

“So, dogs are typically trained to attack arms and legs.”

Arms and legs can be injured if attacked, but unless you’re incredibly unlucky, you won’t die.

However, since the purpose of incapacitation can be achieved through pain and restricted movement, police dogs and military dogs undergo such training.

“The neck… can also be a trained target.”

“Yes.”

“Furthermore, look at these dogs.”

Park Do-joon said, showing the bodies.

“The primary reason animals hunt is because they’re hungry.”

But there are no signs of the dogs consuming the bodies. They only killed people. It was already established that the dogs were in a state of slight malnutrition. If that were the case, the natural instinct to eat the prey after the hunt should have been triggered.

“Hong Geun-jong too.”

“What about Hong Geun-jong? Are you suggesting Hong Geun-jong somehow mobilized those dogs?”

“That’s not it. If a predator is hungry and successfully hunts, the attack typically ends with one kill.”

There were already seven people collapsed outside. Hong Geun-jong was crawling under the vehicle to hide, so it was more difficult for the dogs to attack him.

“Considering the need to feed, there was easier prey readily available outside. And that prey had already been subdued.”

In fact, when a pride of lions hunts a herd of buffalo, they don’t continue to pursue other buffalo after successfully catching one. Because one is enough to satisfy their hunger.

“If there are thirty stray dogs… at most two? That would be enough to fill their bellies.”

And the dogs wouldn’t abandon the subdued targets or exert extra effort to get Hong Geun-jong out of hiding.