Youth expected to face animal cruelty charge for alleged shooting of hunting dogs

A 17-year-old Ashtabula County youth is facing a serious animal cruelty charge for the alleged shooting of two coyote-hunting dogs.

The alleged incident occurred January 28th on private property – purportedly on the youth’s family land. This property is located a short distance east of the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s 1,080-acre Dorset Wildlife Area in Richmond Township.

It is alleged the two dogs were running coyotes on the wildlife area and had left that unit, winding up on the private property. The dogs’ owner is said to have gone looking for his dogs when he heard shooting nearby, saw one of his two dogs return and proceeded to follow a blood trail back to the other injured canine.

The youth – whose name is being withheld since he is a juvenile - is alleged to have admitted shooting both dogs with a 20-gauge shotgun. One of the canines suffered pellet wounds to the lungs while the other canine suffered wounding of a hip.

Each hunting dog subsequently required veterinarian care at a local animal clinic, though the two canines’ current health status is unknown, said an Ashtabula County prosecutor.

News accounts say the youth alleged to investigators how he and a friend were target shooting when the two dogs appeared but in a non-threatening manner.

Responding to the incident were both the Wildlife Division officer assigned to Ashtabula County as well as the Ashtabula County Sheriffs Office.

Since the matter was not associated with a hunting-type incident but an alleged case involving private property and an alleged purposeful shooting, the Wildlife Division passed the affair over to the Sheriffs Department, said a Wildlife Division law enforcement official.

Tamara A. Wetherholt – the Ashtabula County prosecutor involved with juvenile cases - says she has reviewed the Sheriffs Department investigation.

Subsequently, Wetherholt has prepared a charge to be filed on the youth. This charge will be a single count of prohibitions concerning companion animals; a Fifth Degree felony.

Such a charge carries with it a potential minimum incarceration of six months, or a potential incarceration in a juvenile detention facility until the age of 21, as well as possibly a several-hundred dollar fine, Wetherholt said.

Also, Wetherholt said she does not anticipate filing adult charges against the youth.

Once the charge is filed and signed off by the Sheriffs Department the matter will be bound over to Ashtabula County Juvenile Court Judge Albert Camples, Wetherholt said.

“It’s not something that we see every day, and I don’t understand why it was done,” Wetherholt said. “It’s sort of crazy, actually.”

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com