Fawn beaten to death with shovel
Euclid, OH (US)

Incident Date: Monday, Jun 15, 2009
County: Cuyahoga

Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Dorothy Richardson

Case Updates: 1 update(s) available

A charge of animal abuse has been filed against a woman, 75, who allegedly beat a fawn to death with a shovel. The fawn was in her flower bed.

Animal Control Warden Ann Mills signed a warrant last week against Dorothy Richardson of Waynoka Road in the city's Indian Hills neighborhood, where deer frequently come and go.

Richardson's neighbors, including Ward 1 Councilman Christopher Gruber, were appalled by her alleged actions.

The killing took place June 15 when the woman spotted the fawn in her flowers. Richardson allegedly told neighbors the fawn wouldn't leave so she went into her garage, got a shovel, and hit the animal several times in the head.

A Waynoka Road man, in his witness's letter to the animal warden, said the fawn weighed about 25 pounds.

The man allegedly overhead Richardson telling a neighbor about the killing.

"From what I understood," the man wrote, "the fawn was basically screaming. As she was beating it, she was asking it if it was dead yet."

Assistant Law Director Kelley Sweeney said Richardson is alleged to have then put the fawn's carcass in a box and put it on the tree lawn for trash collection.

The man wrote, "Dorothy Richardson's tone had absolutely no remorse for her actions."

Another male witness wrote, "I have had this on my mind" ever since Richardson told him what she had done. "Everyone that I have told the story to (has) been in shock.'"

This man also said Richardson had no remorse. He added that Richardson had told him "she wasn't going to allow anything to destroy what she and her dead husband had acquired through hard work."

When Richardson later went to Gruber's house to talk, a witness said Gruber was too upset to speak with her.

Gruber called the killing "unacceptable" and said it was one of the most shocking things he has heard "as a councilman and as a person."

"The Ohio Division of Wildlife said that a deer that young would still be nursing and wouldn't be eating flowers," Sweeney said.

"(Richardson) told neighbors that she should have put the carcass in her back yard so that other deer would see it and stay away."

Sweeney said that even though there is no body, one man saw the carcass and that Richardson allegedly told the others what she had done, making it possible to file charges.

Mills is on vacation and was unavailable for comment.

Richardson did not return a phone call to the Euclid Sun Journal.

Animal abuse is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by a maximum sentence of $1,000, and/or up to six months in jail.

Case Updates

References

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