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New Jersey Wife Turns In Husband for Trapping and Drowning Squirrels

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November 23, 2010

New Jersey Wife Turns In Husband for Trapping and Drowning Squirrels

By Chad Love

A New Jersey man has been charged with animal cruelty and fined $2,500 after he was turned in for trapping and drowning squirrels he claims were destroying his property. But here's the kicker: he was turned in by his wife, who apparently got fed up with her husband's ongoing squirrel war.

From this story in the Asbury Park Press  (via the Outdoor Pressroom):
A Freehold-based attorney pleaded guilty to animal cruelty after his wife turned him in for using a "Havahart" trap to capture squirrels then drowning the animals in their backyard fountain pond, authorities said. Edward F. Colrick, 62, of Atlantic Avenue, pleaded guilty to the animal cruelty charge on Tuesday in Spring Lake Heights municipal court, where Judge George C. Pappas fined him $2,500 and ordered him to cease trapping animals, said Victor "Buddy" Amato, chief law enforcement officer for the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Colrick, a partner in the Freehold-based law firm of McGovern, Provost and Colrick, was represented by fellow partner Timothy J. Provost, who told Pappas that Colrick did not know it was against the law to drown squirrels, and that the squirrels were causing damage to his property, according to Amato.

"What he should have done after trapping the animal was call a professional so the animal could be relocated. This is no way to take out an animal," Amato said, adding that a necropsy was performed on the animal by the Cornell Medical Institute, which confirmed it died by drowning. After a three- or four-year struggle with her husband over the trapping and killing of squirrels at their Spring Lake home, Patricia F. Colrick called police on Oct. 17 to report his transgressions, according to a written statement she provided to the Monmouth County SPCA in October. "I witnessed my husband capturing a squirrel in a 'Have A Heart' (sic) trap on the floor of our exterior side porch, carry the cage with the live animal in it, and put the cage with the squirrel in it into the small pool at the foot of my antique fountain in our backyard," she wrote. "When I saw what he was doing, I immediately tapped loudly on the kitchen window but my husband ignored me," she explained in the statement detailing the animal cruelty incident.

OK, all you married guys, what's the lesson here? What important nugget of wisdom do you take away from this cautionary tale?

Comments (22)

Top Rated
All Comments
from BuckBoss wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

...make sure she doesn't know and can't find out...

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from Douglas wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

No, that is no way to take out an animal. Take the critter to a park and let it go.
Besides, as an attorney, he should know that waterboarding is illegal.

+4 Good Comment? | | Report
from Dcast wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

My important nugget is: He is going to need a swimming pool for his wife!

All joking aside this guy has some serious issues other than squirrels. He needs a little psycho analysist.

+3 Good Comment? | | Report
from mad_dog9999 wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

Ask your wife if she has an extra $2,500 laying around before you drown a squirrel

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from Walt Smith wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

I bet thats a happy household!

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from pbshooter1217 wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

Bet she didn't think about all the fines and fees, probably wishes she would have kept her mouth shut. Thats still a pretty sick way to kill an animal though.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from uplander12 wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

My wife would be fine with me trapping squirrels. They kept digging up her flowers all summer long and she got tired of replanting them. One day last week there were 8 of them in my front yard picking up acorns that had fallen from our big oak tree. It's getting a little ridiculous.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from Bellringer wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

He needs the name of the most vicious divorce lawyer in the area. That woman can never be trusted again.

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from shane wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

May or may not have been involved in some havahart skunk drownings...

-1 Good Comment? | | Report
from buckhunter wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

Maybe the full length squirrel coat didn't go over to well at Christmas.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from rugerlady wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

Tsk Tsk hubby....

How much property damage can squirrels really do? Maybe by the hundreds...

Wow.

Im usually pretty long winded with opinions, but I just dont know what to say here!!!

I do, however, wonder who is filing for the divorce. Him, for her tattle tale ways, or her, for his cruel (unethical, and illegal) way of dealing with the issue....

What would he do if it were his dog to tear the place up? Or kids??

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from Bella wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

What a waste of meat...
No wonder the wife was distressed, drowning 'em is so unsporting.

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from RichardF wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

at least he knows a good lawyer for the devorce

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from Bassmasterking wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

I had no idea that was against the law. I have never personally done it but that is what everyone tells me to do. That happens quite often in my area.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from iowahunter18 wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

He needs some pet hawks.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from jersey pig wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

should have made some good bruswick stew for the old lady and maybe he would have won her over.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from CorieSquared wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

I'd say dispatching the squirrels with a .22 pistol would have been acceptable. Intentionally drowing anything is pretty disturbing.

+2 Good Comment? | | Report
from OrangeNeckInNY wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

Everything is illegal in New Jersey. And you can't discharge a gun anywhere in New Jersey, except at a range or in the field while hunting. God forbid you have one hollow point bullet or pellet on you in New Jersey. For every hollow point you have on you, you're getting 5 years in jail. You also need a NJ pistol license before you can buy an air gun, and then you have to register it.

I wouldn't piss on New Jersey if it were on fire.

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from stick500 wrote 1 year 25 weeks ago

and yet almost all states allow muskrat, beaver and coon traps that are set in the water to purposely drown them.
I would have never guessed that was illegal to do to a squirrel

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from hockey86 wrote 1 year 25 weeks ago

I know from experience that a squirrel can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage. Wait till one finds his way into your attic chews on some electrical wires and burns the house down. My neighbor found that out the hard way. I don't agree with the killing method but a high-powered pellet gun works just fine.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from Nick Powers wrote 1 year 24 weeks ago

This is my ex gf's father. Do you know how he broke us up? First he told her that she had to go to NJ after the semester and 'visit' him for a week. Then he wouldn't let her leave.

She called me crying every day. She's 21. Then he took her cell phone when he found out we talked and she wanted to come back and see me. We were together for 2 years everyday and in love.

A few days later on the telephone, he told me,
"There's too many emotions between you two. So I don't think you two should communicate with each other until both of your feelings for each other are gone.

"That is why she has to stay in NJ. Maybe I can arrange to drive her to Pittsburgh to get her personal effects and you two can have a visit and say goodbye for 10 minutes."

For the person who asked, according to my ex, his wife was divorcing him,but only because his is under investigation for tax fraud and so she has to so she can save money. She told me "My daughter does not want to see you, she only thinks that because you confuse her by talking to her."

And before they had her come back, they encouraged her and I to sign a lease for an apt in a historic landmark (the most expensive one we had looked at), and said they would pay her half. His house is next to the ocean, I had to take out school loans and not eat the last 6 months just to pay her half...
...and he is wasting squirrels!
Sic
He told me to go live at a homeless shelter if I got kicked out, and to throw away all of her things. Her old childhood memorabilia, first guitar, her artwork, her dairies from highschool,birth certificate,clothes, all of her stuff that she had.

And she said he took her laptop because it had hundreds of pictures of us together on it from the last 2 years, and anything else she had to remind her of me.

And they do not live in the woods, but a community of valuable properties right next to the ocean with neighbors right next door. So yeah, it is pretty sick to do this in your neighborhood backyard. I feel as helpless as the squirrels.

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from Gritz wrote 1 year 19 weeks ago

There are many things that are sad about this article. My grandmother used to drown bats and mice in her basement with a soapy bucket of water and some other contraption. We always thought it was cruel, but not as cruel as when she dispatched gofers in her garden with a shovel. We all thought it was pretty bad but would never have told her what she could or could not do in her own home. I do agree that drowning animals is not a good thing. The worst part of this is that the wife had to settle this dispute in a public court of law. This is NOT the way to handle it. If a husband and wife cannot settle their problems on their own they really should not be together. This is a waste of tax payer's money and a courts time. There are people things that belong in a court of law and this is not one of them. The last sad thing is that the court felt it necessary to perform a necropsy on a squirrel to prove that it was drowned. That is ridiculous. If this is in court, against a husband and his wife, and the guy admitted to his actions, then what was the point? If he tried to defend himself by saying he did not drowned the squirrel and the court was required to perform this expensive investigation then the least that should have been done is for this man to be found guilty of lying in a court of law. Blah!

0 Good Comment? | | Report

Post a Comment

from Douglas wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

No, that is no way to take out an animal. Take the critter to a park and let it go.
Besides, as an attorney, he should know that waterboarding is illegal.

+4 Good Comment? | | Report
from Dcast wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

My important nugget is: He is going to need a swimming pool for his wife!

All joking aside this guy has some serious issues other than squirrels. He needs a little psycho analysist.

+3 Good Comment? | | Report
from CorieSquared wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

I'd say dispatching the squirrels with a .22 pistol would have been acceptable. Intentionally drowing anything is pretty disturbing.

+2 Good Comment? | | Report
from mad_dog9999 wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

Ask your wife if she has an extra $2,500 laying around before you drown a squirrel

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from Walt Smith wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

I bet thats a happy household!

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from Bellringer wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

He needs the name of the most vicious divorce lawyer in the area. That woman can never be trusted again.

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from Bella wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

What a waste of meat...
No wonder the wife was distressed, drowning 'em is so unsporting.

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from OrangeNeckInNY wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

Everything is illegal in New Jersey. And you can't discharge a gun anywhere in New Jersey, except at a range or in the field while hunting. God forbid you have one hollow point bullet or pellet on you in New Jersey. For every hollow point you have on you, you're getting 5 years in jail. You also need a NJ pistol license before you can buy an air gun, and then you have to register it.

I wouldn't piss on New Jersey if it were on fire.

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from stick500 wrote 1 year 25 weeks ago

and yet almost all states allow muskrat, beaver and coon traps that are set in the water to purposely drown them.
I would have never guessed that was illegal to do to a squirrel

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from Nick Powers wrote 1 year 24 weeks ago

This is my ex gf's father. Do you know how he broke us up? First he told her that she had to go to NJ after the semester and 'visit' him for a week. Then he wouldn't let her leave.

She called me crying every day. She's 21. Then he took her cell phone when he found out we talked and she wanted to come back and see me. We were together for 2 years everyday and in love.

A few days later on the telephone, he told me,
"There's too many emotions between you two. So I don't think you two should communicate with each other until both of your feelings for each other are gone.

"That is why she has to stay in NJ. Maybe I can arrange to drive her to Pittsburgh to get her personal effects and you two can have a visit and say goodbye for 10 minutes."

For the person who asked, according to my ex, his wife was divorcing him,but only because his is under investigation for tax fraud and so she has to so she can save money. She told me "My daughter does not want to see you, she only thinks that because you confuse her by talking to her."

And before they had her come back, they encouraged her and I to sign a lease for an apt in a historic landmark (the most expensive one we had looked at), and said they would pay her half. His house is next to the ocean, I had to take out school loans and not eat the last 6 months just to pay her half...
...and he is wasting squirrels!
Sic
He told me to go live at a homeless shelter if I got kicked out, and to throw away all of her things. Her old childhood memorabilia, first guitar, her artwork, her dairies from highschool,birth certificate,clothes, all of her stuff that she had.

And she said he took her laptop because it had hundreds of pictures of us together on it from the last 2 years, and anything else she had to remind her of me.

And they do not live in the woods, but a community of valuable properties right next to the ocean with neighbors right next door. So yeah, it is pretty sick to do this in your neighborhood backyard. I feel as helpless as the squirrels.

+1 Good Comment? | | Report
from BuckBoss wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

...make sure she doesn't know and can't find out...

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from pbshooter1217 wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

Bet she didn't think about all the fines and fees, probably wishes she would have kept her mouth shut. Thats still a pretty sick way to kill an animal though.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from uplander12 wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

My wife would be fine with me trapping squirrels. They kept digging up her flowers all summer long and she got tired of replanting them. One day last week there were 8 of them in my front yard picking up acorns that had fallen from our big oak tree. It's getting a little ridiculous.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from buckhunter wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

Maybe the full length squirrel coat didn't go over to well at Christmas.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from rugerlady wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

Tsk Tsk hubby....

How much property damage can squirrels really do? Maybe by the hundreds...

Wow.

Im usually pretty long winded with opinions, but I just dont know what to say here!!!

I do, however, wonder who is filing for the divorce. Him, for her tattle tale ways, or her, for his cruel (unethical, and illegal) way of dealing with the issue....

What would he do if it were his dog to tear the place up? Or kids??

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from RichardF wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

at least he knows a good lawyer for the devorce

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from Bassmasterking wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

I had no idea that was against the law. I have never personally done it but that is what everyone tells me to do. That happens quite often in my area.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from iowahunter18 wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

He needs some pet hawks.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from jersey pig wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

should have made some good bruswick stew for the old lady and maybe he would have won her over.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from hockey86 wrote 1 year 25 weeks ago

I know from experience that a squirrel can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage. Wait till one finds his way into your attic chews on some electrical wires and burns the house down. My neighbor found that out the hard way. I don't agree with the killing method but a high-powered pellet gun works just fine.

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from Gritz wrote 1 year 19 weeks ago

There are many things that are sad about this article. My grandmother used to drown bats and mice in her basement with a soapy bucket of water and some other contraption. We always thought it was cruel, but not as cruel as when she dispatched gofers in her garden with a shovel. We all thought it was pretty bad but would never have told her what she could or could not do in her own home. I do agree that drowning animals is not a good thing. The worst part of this is that the wife had to settle this dispute in a public court of law. This is NOT the way to handle it. If a husband and wife cannot settle their problems on their own they really should not be together. This is a waste of tax payer's money and a courts time. There are people things that belong in a court of law and this is not one of them. The last sad thing is that the court felt it necessary to perform a necropsy on a squirrel to prove that it was drowned. That is ridiculous. If this is in court, against a husband and his wife, and the guy admitted to his actions, then what was the point? If he tried to defend himself by saying he did not drowned the squirrel and the court was required to perform this expensive investigation then the least that should have been done is for this man to be found guilty of lying in a court of law. Blah!

0 Good Comment? | | Report
from shane wrote 1 year 26 weeks ago

May or may not have been involved in some havahart skunk drownings...

-1 Good Comment? | | Report

Post a Comment

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