A Virginia man on a police ride-along was found guilty of animal cruelty after he jumped out of the police car and stomped an opossum to death.

The Danville Register & Bee reported Tuesday that 23-year-old Evan Bryce Schuler saw the opossum run along a fence. A police officer testified that Schuler ran up to the fence, grabbed the links and "started stomping.

Schuler's lawyer, James Priest, said Schuler grew up on a farm where opossums killed his chickens and acted on instinct. Priest appealed the district court's ruling and the case will move to circuit court.

Source: Danville Register & Bee, http://www.registerbee.com

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