When a 21-year-old student illegally dumped the carcasses of 33 dead snow geese in a wooded area near a Columbia playground, he did so to return them to the “circle of life.”
That?s what Edward D. Dillon, of the village of Kings Contrivance in Columbia, told a Howard County District Court Judge Alice Clark on Tuesday, telling the judge he hoped foxes and raccoons would eat the birds.
“I understand my choice of placement was not the best,” Dillon told Clark, after pleading guilty to one littering charge of dumping more than 100 pounds.
Clark sentenced Dillon, who attends Howard Community College, to a $500 fine, 18 months of probation and 50 hours of community service.
Before sentencing Dillon, Clark scolded the former Hammond High School student for potentially exposing children to germs and bacteria carried by the dead birds.
“In my opinion, near a tot lot, you endangered children,” she said.
Dillon, who referred to himself as an “outdoorsman” who is active in his local Boy Scout troop, turned himself in to police on March 10 after residents complained to authorities about finding 33 geese March 2.
Dillon told Clark that a co-worker killed the geese and gave them to him so he could make jerky and other food out of them. Dillon said he then made a poor decision in dumping the birds in a wooded area near the playground, hoping that woodland creatures would eat them.
Assistant State?s Attorney Edward Curry said Dillon?s dumping of the birds was not “an act of cruelty” but one of “negligence.”
After the sentencing, Jeff Dillon, Edward?s father, called the $500 fine harsh.
“It was just a lapse in judgment,” he said.
