from inside edition;beloved Family Dog Poisoned by Neighbor
posted on:
Feb '09
7
9:11am
a shocking and cowardly crime: the cold-blooded killing of a neighbor's dog.
Lola, a German Shepherd, was a beloved pet of the Hodges family for ten years, until one day they'll never forget.
The Hodges figured it was safe to let their dog out in their own backyard to play for a few minutes every night. Little did they know, their neighbor was plotting the unthinkable: to poison their beloved dog. He put a tray of ribs laced with antifreeze over the fence.
Lola ate the poisoned ribs. Their other dog, Maggie, didn't. Lola became so sick she had to be euthanized.
"This is a tight community. We all know each other...our neighbors stood in the street and in our yard and cried with us over Lola."
Lola's death was especially hard on six-year-old Nicholas. "Nicholas was distraught. Nicholas cried for days," Hodges tells INSIDE EDITION.
Suspicion naturally turned to neighbors and police focused on 58-year-old Ralph Ziegler. Under questioning, he confessed to poisoning Lola because he was fed up with her barking.
Even more disturbing? Ziegler was the neighborhood mailman.
"He, by reason of his job, is allowed to come to my house every day. It makes me feel even more violated than I did before," says Hodges.
Mindy Hodges made an emotional statement in court in Jackson, Missouri: "To our family the loss of our pet and our children's pet has been unexplainable."
"I'm just so sorry about everything. I'm so sorry," said Ziegler in court.
Ziegler was sentenced to 15 weekends in jail. Defense attorney Al Lowes says the sentence is overkill: "It was just a dog, it wasn't a child. What's the point of putting him in jail?" he asks.
But Mindy Hodges believes justice was done. "Some people think animals don't matter, but their loss really is something that your family feels," she says.
Ziegler was also ordered to pay the family's vet bills and the cost of a new dog. His attorney says that the jail sentence could cost him his Post Office job.
Lola, a German Shepherd, was a beloved pet of the Hodges family for ten years, until one day they'll never forget.
The Hodges figured it was safe to let their dog out in their own backyard to play for a few minutes every night. Little did they know, their neighbor was plotting the unthinkable: to poison their beloved dog. He put a tray of ribs laced with antifreeze over the fence.
Lola ate the poisoned ribs. Their other dog, Maggie, didn't. Lola became so sick she had to be euthanized.
"This is a tight community. We all know each other...our neighbors stood in the street and in our yard and cried with us over Lola."
Lola's death was especially hard on six-year-old Nicholas. "Nicholas was distraught. Nicholas cried for days," Hodges tells INSIDE EDITION.
Suspicion naturally turned to neighbors and police focused on 58-year-old Ralph Ziegler. Under questioning, he confessed to poisoning Lola because he was fed up with her barking.
Even more disturbing? Ziegler was the neighborhood mailman.
"He, by reason of his job, is allowed to come to my house every day. It makes me feel even more violated than I did before," says Hodges.
Mindy Hodges made an emotional statement in court in Jackson, Missouri: "To our family the loss of our pet and our children's pet has been unexplainable."
"I'm just so sorry about everything. I'm so sorry," said Ziegler in court.
Ziegler was sentenced to 15 weekends in jail. Defense attorney Al Lowes says the sentence is overkill: "It was just a dog, it wasn't a child. What's the point of putting him in jail?" he asks.
But Mindy Hodges believes justice was done. "Some people think animals don't matter, but their loss really is something that your family feels," she says.
Ziegler was also ordered to pay the family's vet bills and the cost of a new dog. His attorney says that the jail sentence could cost him his Post Office job.
