Man Gets 6 Months in Jail for Cruelty to Hummingbird

A North Hollywood man who clipped a hummingbird’s wings and tied it by the legs to his neck was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail. The bird died in an animal shelter several hours after the man’s arrest April 6, authorities said.

Ramon Armando Ruiz, 26, pleaded no contest in San Fernando Municipal Court to one count of misdemeanor cruelty to animals and one count of giving a false name to a police officer. He was also found guilty of violating his parole for earlier charges of spousal battery and car tampering, said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Dean E. Masserman.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to drop a felony charge of cruelty to animals against Ruiz. Ruiz could have been sentenced to three years in prison had he been convicted on all counts, Masserman said.

Los Angeles police arrested Ruiz after they saw him wearing the bird around his neck while investigating an unrelated disturbance near the man’s residence at Victory Boulevard and Vineland Avenue, authorities said.

According to a police report, the bird was “highly agitated and trying to fly away” but couldn’t because it was tied to the string. Its tail feathers had been removed and its right wing appeared to be broken, the report says.

When the officers asked him why he had the bird, Ruiz reportedly laughed and bounced the bird in his hands.

Officers took the bird to the city’s East Valley Animal Shelter, where an animal regulation officer determined that the tightly tied string had cut blood circulation in the bird’s legs. It died that evening, Masserman said.

Masserman said Ruiz told him he had found the bird lying injured in a storm basin several months earlier and had tried to nurse it back to health. He denied trying to hurt it and said he tied it to his neck to transport it.

“He said he had clipped its wings as would any person who wouldn’t want their bird to fly away,” Masserman said.