Man guilty of animal cruelty after stomping opossum to death in front of police
A Vernon Hill man was found guilty Monday of animal cruelty after he stomped an opossum to death while on a June 20 ride-along with a Danville police officer.
Evan Bryce Schuler, 23, appealed the judge’s decision, and his case will now move to circuit court.
He appeared in Danville General District Court, where Judge M. Lee Stilwell Jr. reached his decision after hearing two police officers’ testimony.
Officer M.A. Gibbs said she and other officers had stopped at the gas pumps off Monument Street at about 6:30 a.m. Schuler was with one of the officers, J.R. McBride.
While there, Schuler got out of the cruiser and chased an opossum as it ran along a fence, Gibbs said.
“He grabbed a hold of the links of the fence and just started stomping,” she said.
Schuler then ran back to the police cars.
“He was like, ‘I shouldn’t have done that,’” McBride said.
Schuler’s attorney, James Priest, said that his client was riding with McBride because he was thinking about applying for a job with the police department. But that job evaporated after the animal cruelty charge. Schuler also served in the military and does not have a criminal record, he added.
Priest said his client grew up on a farm, where opossums killed more than 50 of his chickens. Schuler acted on “strict, basic instinct,” Priest said.
Robert Adams Jr., senior assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said that opossums and other animals act on instinct as well.
“Hopefully, what differentiates us, is that we don’t just act on instinct,” Adams said.
He understands how Schuler’s life on a farm might influence his actions, but that was a whole different situation, Adams said.
For instance, a dog bite doesn’t give anyone the right to shoot every dog that he sees, Adams said.
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Randall,
You need to call Goodyear in Akron to get your problem solved. Perhaps the personal integrity hotline. At the local level nothing will probably be done. Good luck with your situation.
Yes, I have been thinking about that. I think we used a Yanceyville attorney. It was so long ago, I just don’t remember for sure. I am looking into that as well. I need to find the deed and see if their are any descriptions. I still invite anyone out to see this mess for themselves. It is just hard to fathom without seeing it with your own eyes.
Thanks for being civil, for a change. ;)
Randy. Did you not have an attorney do a search before you bought the land? If so, you might go back on him/her also; that is something that should have been discovered before you bought the land. A good attorney at the sale of the land would have saved you a lot of grief. Good luck to you, my friend. Peace.
Where is this “other site” you guys speak of? Thank you. R Dowdy
JP, if you would use a little of your time reading and learning, and less spouting off about things you don’t know anything about, you wouldn’t look like a fool as much.
There is nothing in the deed books about my land being a toxic hazardous waste dump, nothing about being on the Superfund list. Not even the Superfund ID number that is assigned to it. At least nothing was there when we bought it, or 10 years later. Duh. I mean really, who would buy one if they knew? Maybe you, but not I. We were duped. That is a fact.
The Federal Gov’t got involved because it was a toxic hazardous waste dump. Ever heard of the SUPERFUND? That is the list of the worst sites, pollution wise. Not household garbage and junk, but really bad , usually industrial dump sites, almost always illegal. This one was illegal from day one. Unfortunately, my land is part of one. I can’t change that. There was cheating involved in the cleanup, and that is why it is a mess. If the cleanup had been done right, the dumpsite would just be an inert field with crap under it that didn’t hurt anything. There would not be barrels washing out of the ground after leaking out all the poison into the groundwater. No airplane tires all over the woods, at the bottom of the hills. The fact, and I have proof, easy to prove, is that there is toxic waste here, the remnants of it ooze out of the ground and you can see it when you look during a dry spell. Wanna drink it to prove to me that it is not toxic? I will loan you a cup, and even fill it for you, all within your sight.
The gov’t is coming back next week to test the water again. My late Fathers well was poisoned with PCE, a chemical used in Goodyear. He died of brain cancer. Coincidence? I don’t know just yet.
The founders of FPC dumped the stuff there, with Goodyears knowledge, 100%. The supervisors helped load the many trucks. There was knowledge at every point, after all the trucks only went 2 miles each way. They can’t deny that.
You are still living in the past. Everything is somebodys fault.
You blamed all the gas price spikes on Bush and his cronies. I guess the latest price jump in gas and oil is Obamas fault. He is your Prez, isn’t he? This is the off season, so there is no reason for it. Perhaps now Obamasama is getting the kickbacks. Somebody must be, since Bush isn’t there to blame it on! The stock market fell over 100 points several times lately. That is Obamasamas fault too, somehow. I will find a way to pinpoint the blame later. But Obamasama is the Prez now, and he is responsible. I don’t know if the local Opossums are Demorats or Republicans. I never saw one begging for food, nor blaming their plight on others, nor on the unemployment line, so they must be Republican!
But back to the Opossums. I hope no Opossums drink from the toxic water oozing out of the Bryant Farm Drum Dump, in Caswell County, Goodyears local addition to the Superfund list.
And to everyone, no Opossums were harmed during the addition to this topic here on the blog.
www.bryantfarmdrumdump.blogspot.com is where you can see what the Opossums on Dowdy Lane have to live in and around. With confessions on company letterhead of the people who dumped this stuff and jeopardized the local Opossum population of Providence NC. Even the Opossums downstream in Danville, all along Pumpkin Creek, are drinking toxic waste water. Is that fair to the Opossums?
All hail the Opossums!
Power to the Possums!
J. - Nice try but that wouldn’t work. I don’t hit girls!
yeah i think i’m gonna stop now. i will thank everyone tho. bc the last few days coming in to work has been a bit entertaining just reading the possum jokes. but we are taking a different turn on to subjects that have america divided right now and i would just rather stop than add more fuel to the fire. it was great while it lasted and it was good to see that so many people had a sense of humor when it came to the subject including jackson (despite what some of u may feel).
btw: if we were on the schoolyard and rockit and jackson were there, i would have done what any smart kid would have done a long time ago and pushed you two into each other yelling FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!! lol
I think this whole story has gotten out of hand—time for a new story! Too many loose associations, tangential thinking, etc. If I did not know better, I would swear I was reading posts from, well never mind! I don’t have enough patience to go back and see how the possum story got intertwined with the ill baby story. The former story is demonstrated an exercise in stupidity. The latter one is sad; I think JP’s point was that it is pathetic that we have to have bake sales, walkathons, etc to pay for someone’s illness. How these two stories became comingled is a mystery!
JP ran over to this site to comment about the baby because people kept calling him out as an insensitive jerk on the other one. Instead of offering support and hope for the baby’s family, he decided it was a good place to lobby for universal health care. Then he comes over here and decides to be all sensitive over the possum killing (which by the way I think is disgusting and inhumane and the guy should have been convicted of animal cruelty). And let’s not forget how sensitive he was to the lady who couldn’t get the bus to stop at Target. JP, get back on your meds and get off the crazy train. It’s sad. Really sad. Not to mention pathetic.
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