Trapping Incident #223

Summary:

A pet cat was trapped in a neighbor’s backyard when traps were set intended to catch raccoons.

Result:

In October 2011, James Schmerker, owner of Animal Damage Control, was found guilty of doing pest control without a license and sentenced to 90 days in jail and three year's probation. He served 10 days in County Jail. On January 5, 2012, deputies went to Schmerker's home and found 10 recently killed dead animals, many still in body crushing traps, plus a freezer full of animals bodies and 1 live raccoon. On January 28, Schmerker's brother was in teh driveway burning animals in traps with a blowtorch. On January 29, Schmerker was schedule dto show up for apobation volation hearing and did not show up. Schmerker was already a fugitive for not reporting to jail on Jan 25 as ordered for a non-trapping related felony conviction for illegal possession of firearms/meth. A no-bail warrant was issued for his arrest and he was arrested on Feb 8, 2012. For the two cases combined, Schmerker will serve 3 months for the misdemeanor trapping w/o a license and 6 months for the meth/guns for a