ASPCA Announces Indictment of Brooklyn Man Who Beat Dachshunds to Death

NEW YORK, October 19, 2006—The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) announced today that Ramsay Dudley, 22, of 970 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, was indicted by a grand jury in Brooklyn for two counts of aggravated animal cruelty and two counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty for killing his two dachshunds in separate incidents.

On September 15, 2006, around midnight, Dudley took his dachshund Junior to the Veterinary Emergency & Referral Group in Brooklyn. There, vets determined that the five-month-old dog had sustained catastrophic injuries, including six broken ribs, bruised lungs, liver damage and internal bleeding.  Junior died the next day as a result of his injuries.

Veterinarians at the Veterinary Emergency & Referral Group alerted Humane Law Enforcement officers at the ASPCA to the suspected abuse and an investigation was initiated. On October 2, ASPCA Special Agent Richard Ryan arrested Dudley. 

During an interview, Dudley confessed that he was also responsible for the death of a second dachshund, Viola, who had died several weeks earlier. Viola, six months old, had been buried in a residential yard in Brooklyn and was exhumed by ASPCA officers. A necropsy was performed by ASPCA veterinarians who determined that Viola had sustained significant trauma to her head, consistent with having been violently struck.