Anglers Nabbed for Poaching; Animal Cruelty Case Settles

Two men were charged with poaching striped bass, and an incident involving animal cruelty was settled in court this week in cases brought by the Maryland Natural Resources Police. 

Two men were charged Thursday with poaching striped bass in Dorchester County.

Jose Andrade, 49, of Silver Spring, and Wilfredo Quintanilla Torres, 40, of Hyattsville were charged with catching five fish each during a closed season.

Officers on surveillance detail near Fishing Creek Bridge on Hooper Island around midnight watched the two men place fish in the trunk of their vehicle and stopped them.

The men are scheduled to appear in Dorchester District Court on May 18. If found guilty, they each could be fined as much as $1,500.

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On Thursday, a St. Mary’s County man was ordered to do 100 hours of community service and pay $1,000 to the owner of a dog that was shot and its throat cut at a state park late last year.

In a plea agreement, Marcus Stauffer, 20, of Leonardtown, also was ordered by a district court judge to stay away from Newtowne Neck State Park for one year. The aggravated animal cruelty case was marked as inactive but may be re-opened within one year if the conditions are violated.

Stauffer was deer hunting from a tree stand on Christmas Day when he saw the dog, a year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever, and shot it twice with a muzzleloader. He climbed down from the stand and cut the dog’s throat.

The dog and another retriever are owned by the ranger who lives at the park. The dogs, which wore collars and tags, were confined to a porch while the ranger patrolled the park but broke free.

The ranger found the one dog and, with along with a Natural Resources Police officer, searched the park for the second dog without success.

Hours later, the ranger encountered Stauffer, who said he thought the dog was a stray and that he “shot it for the public.”