Charges Appropriate For Man Accused Of Killing Kitten? By: Reneee Dudley - Beaufort Gazette, SC Previous story: Bluffton Official Shoots Dead Kitten Chasing Butterfly Despite questions that have area bloggers buzzing, Bluffton's police chief said Tuesday that charges filed against a town official accused of shooting his neighbor's kitten were appropriate and in accordance with state law. Police Chief David McAllister also addressed bloggers' allegations that Frank Hodge, director of Bluffton's new Department of Building Safety, received special treatment. "Nobody in Bluffton Town Hall influenced our decision. They had no impact on the charges, arrest - nothing," McAllister said. Hodge is accused of fatally shooting a 7-month-old kitten named Mud Pie in the chest and neck when the animal came onto his property around noon on the 15th of April, according to a Bluffton police report. He was cited for malicious injury to an animal and discharging a firearm within town limits, according to the report. Bloggers asked why Hodge wasn't charged with a felony under South Carolina animal cruelty laws, which carry harsher fines and more jail time. Animal cruelty laws would not have been used, McAllister said, unless Hodge had tortured the animal to death - for example, by lighting the cat onfire. "The state legislature makes a difference between killing and cruelly killing," McAllister said. "Some people may say Hodge cruelly killed the cat, but in the facts of the investigation, he only killed the cat. We charged accordingly." McAllister said people frustrated by the charges should direct their concerns to state legislators. Hodge, 62, is in the second week of his two-week unpaid suspension from his post. Mud Pie's owner, Bluffton resident and Hodge's neighbour Amy Longley, filed the initial incident report on the 17th of April. Moggies comment: What total garbage from this so called police chief, if that had been an ordinary citizen that had killed the kitten, they would be on far more serious charges, looks like the police look after town officials, maybe the town officials look after the police? it is not State legislators that need looking at, it is the police chief that needs closer inspection! As for Frank Hodge, that pathetic coward killed an innocent cat, a cat that was owned by a neighbour, and he is getting off very lightly, the charges were not appropriate. |