WHITEWATER, COLORADO — Feral cats broke into a Colorado body farm to munch on some choice cadavers. But scientists don't mind – it's all in the name of science!<br /><br />For the uninitiated, body farms aren't as gruesome as the name implies. It's simply a facility where scientists observe and record how the body decomposes over time. So less horror flick and more CSI.<br /><br />At this farm – Colorado Mesa University's Forensic Investigation Research Station – there were fences both above and below ground as well as infrared cameras. <br /><br />Newsweek reports that donor bodies were placed three meters apart and checked weekly for decomp.<br /><br />The cadavers of man and a woman in their 70s had been placed five or six days earlier when a pair of feral cats broke in and started scavenging the bodies.<br /><br />Like bobcats, their favorite bits were soft tissues in the shoulder and arms. Housecats, when they do munch on cadavers, tend to go for facial tissue.<br /><br />The felines came by for a snack twice, but stopped coming when the bodies began going into moist decomposition. Clearly, it doesn't matter whether cats are feral or domesticated – they're still finicky!<br /><br />Scientists weren't really upset about the break-in – they actually thought it helped them learn how to distinguish cause-of-death injuries from damage inflicted postmortem. <br /><br />Guess it's a win-win situation for man and cat!
