Franklin Ziegler is 30 years old and has a daughter who just wanted to eat a French fry at the beach.
It happened in July 2024, near the Surfside pier in North Wildwood, New Jersey. A seagull approached the girl’s snack, as hundreds of seagulls do every summer on any beach in the world. Ziegler did not shoo it away. He grabbed it and tore off its head with his bare hands, while looking for somewhere to throw the body away. Witnesses saw him walking with the decapitated bird looking for a trash can, as if nothing had happened.
He pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and spent 262 days in the Cape May County jail before being released in February and referred to a substance abuse rehabilitation program. Fine: up to 250 dollars. Doll Stanley, of In Defense of Animals, called it “brutal torture committed in broad daylight in front of children” and warned that the justice system failed to protect the community, including animals. On social media, the outcry is repeated: for many, eight months is not enough for what he did.
