Four wild pigs choked, killed
Bakersfield, CA (US)Incident Date: Sunday, Jul 28, 2002
County: Kern
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged:
» Jessie Merrill
» Curtis Sinden
» Steve Mallison
» Eric Merrill
One video clip shows four wild pigs being grabbed, choked, thrown against a fence and chased to exhaustion as families, including children, watch at a Bakersfield-area barbecue.
Another catches an allegedly illegal bear kill last October somewhere in the mountains east of town.
The "disturbing" images led to the arrests of four local men and the search for a fifth on various animal-mistreatment charges, according the California Fish and Game Department and Kern County District Attorney's office.
Evidence discovered in January when authorities busted a major bear-poaching ring prompted the arrests.
The five men face up to a year in jail and fines if convicted of the charges against them. Friday afternoon, the four arrested men were being held in lieu of various amounts of bail, clerks at the downtown Bakersfield jail said.
According to Deputy District Attorney Michael Yraceburn and Fish and Game spokesman Steve Martarano:
* Jessie Merrill, 31 of Arvin was arrested on three counts of animal cruelty and harassment and one count of illegal taking of a bear.
* Curtis Sinden, 35 of Arvin and Steve Mallison, 32 of Bakersfield were arrested on three counts of animal cruelty and harassment plus illegal herding of animals.
* Authorities had a warrant to arrest Eric Merrill, 41, on three counts of animal cruelty and harassment and one count of illegally taking a bear.
* In a separate but related case, Jayson May, 27 of Bakersfield, was arrested on charges of illegally taking a bear.
Authorities found the videotape of the pig incident and bear killing while serving search warrants on Jessie Merrill in January, Yraceburn said.
On that day, Jessie Merrill was one of 11 men arrested in connection with a bear-poaching ring Fish and Game investigated for 16 months. It was the agency's largest sting in a decade.
Jessie Merrill pleaded no contest to a felony charge of conspiracy to unlawfully take a bear and in mid-April, was sentenced to 60 days in jail and three years' probation.
One part of the videotape shows four wild pigs, with the stature of a mid-sized dog, being tortured by Eric Merrill, Jessie Merrill, Sinden and Mallison last July 28 in the yard of Mallison's home, Yraceburn said.
At what appeared to be a "family affair," he said, the pigs were chased, grabbed, choked and swung around by their tails and ears. One pig was run into a fence so hard it was knocked unconscious, Yraceburn said.
Yraceburn said the pigs had just been captured somewhere in the Bakersfield area. The animals were killed either the day of or day after the barbecue, he said.
Martarano said the tape was described to him as "pretty graphic and very disturbing."
The same videotape shows May killing a bear in October, Yraceburn said. Officials investigated May during the poaching investigation but did not have enough evidence to prosecute him, Martarano said. Then the tape surfaced.
"The videotape helped seal the deal," Martarano said. References« CA State Animal Cruelty Map
« More cases in Kern County, CA
|
