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‘Why would they do that?’ Dead fish leaving ‘disgusting’ smell in Church Hill

Posted at 10:33 PM, May 24, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-24 23:21:12-04

RICHMOND, Va. -- Out for an afternoon stroll, Kenny Drespling breathed in the fresh air and contemplated the many improvements in his Church Hill neighborhood.

"It's made a lot of changes over the last few years for sure," Drespling said.

But on this spring day, something fishy is going on in the neighborhood.

"It stinks," one woman said.

Kenny Drespling

"Jesus, why they do that?" another woman said.

"Ew that stinks. Ew that really stinks," Drespling and his neighbor said.

Drespling counted a pile of at least six, maybe more, dead fish lying next to the sidewalk on R street between 22nd and 23rd streets.

"That's disgusting, and you really can, you can smell it. It's pungent, that's gross, they've been there for a while. Oh, there's a ton of fish in there," he added.

Drespling and others we talked to could not stand to be near the fish for long.

One woman even posted about it on the Church Hill neighborhood Facebook page.

"Why would they do that though?" Drespling asked about someone ditching the fish in the neighborhood.

The situation wouldn't be quite so fishy, if just days earlier, Eric Price, hadn't posted about finding another dead fish in Church Hill.

"I was cleaning up some stuff in the yard, and I can smell basically what smelled like rotting fish," Price said.

He found the fish in the alley behind his home in the Chimborazo area.

"There were close to 100 flies in and around the fish," Price said. "You could smell it up and down the block."

Price took a picture of the fish before cleaning it up himself.

"As I grabbed it I was gagging a little bit," Price said. "It was really heavy and soft and as soon as I touched it flies were going everywhere."

Both he and others hope whoever dropped the fish will be more respectful of their neighbors in the future.

"Why even kill the fish for no reason. If you don't need them, don't catch them," Drespling said.

CBS 6 contacted Richmond Animal Care and Control about the fish pile, and they said they will send someone to check it out Friday.

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