Kitten chases butterfly. Bluffton official shoots him dead
By RENEE DUDLEY

843-706-8138
Published Friday, April 25, 2008
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A Bluffton official was fined about $820 and suspended from work for two weeks for allegedly shooting and killing a kitten near his Verdier Cove Road home, according to authorities.

Frank Hodge, director of the town's new Department of Building Safety, was cited for malicious injury to an animal and discharging a firearm within town limits in the April 15 incident, according to a Bluffton police report.

Mud Pie, the 7-month-old kitten, and owner Amy Longley were sharing a ham sandwich on Longley's porch when her phone rang around noon that day, Longley said in an interview Thursday. She said Mud Pie started chasing a butterfly across the lawn when she got up to answer the phone.

Minutes later, while still on the phone, Longley said she heard three gunshots. She hung up to check on Mud Pie.

When she crossed the street, Longley found her kitten dead -- shot once in the chest and once in the neck, according to the report.

Longley buried the kitten in the yard of her home at 48 Verdier Cove Road later that afternoon.

Longley said neighbors told her that Hodge shot Mud Pie because he thought the animal was sick.

Hodge told neighbors he left his home for a meeting after the shooting and that he had planned to "deal with it later," the report stated.

Longley said Mud Pie -- named for her affinity for frolicking in the dirt -- had not been sick and was certainly not rabid.

"What gives him the authority to make that call?" Longley said. "This is 2008."

Frank Hodge, 62, did not return phone calls Thursday. Attempts to talk to him at his home on 55 Verdier Cove Road also were unsuccessful.

Dr. Cal Sharp, Hodge's neighbor, said Hodge dealt with what he thought might have been a rabid animal in a way that he thought was appropriate.

"It's the way things in the past have been dealt with," Sharp said. "But it's 2008. It's not the way things are done anymore."

Sharp said Hodge has been a good neighbor and belongs to wildlife and hunting groups. Hodge owns several cats and dogs, Sharp said.

"He made an unfortunate mistake," Sharp said.

Bluffton town manager Bill Workman said Hodge "showed a significant lack of good judgment."

Workman said Hodge will undergo mandatory counseling through the town's Employee Assistance Program.

Hodge was fined $257.50 for discharging a firearm in town limits and $562 for malicious injury to an animal, according to Bluffton Municipal Court records.

Those fines were paid April 22.

Sandy Lesch, manager for Bluffton's Department of Building Safety, said the incident -- and Hodge's two-week suspension -- will not affect the new department's operations.

"We'll keep going right along," she said in an interview at her office Thursday.

Hodge joined Bluffton's new Department of Building Safety -- which will take over building inspection responsibilities now managed by Beaufort County -- when the department opened its doors last November.

Before that, Hodge had served more than 20 years in a similar department on Hilton Head Island.