A Bel Air pharmacist was sentenced to a year in prison for stealing medication from the hospital where he worked to kill his 6-year-old dog last year.

Ryan Ball, 38, a licensed pharmacist who worked at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, pled guilty to one count of aggravated animal cruelty and one count of obtaining a prescription by fraud, according to a news release from the Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Judge Paul W. Ishak sentenced Ball to five years, with all but one suspended, at the Harford County Detention Center and ordered that he is prohibited from possessing any animals while on probation.

On July 17, 2024, Harford County police responded to a report from Ball’s neighbors stating that they found medication vials at the bottom of their trashcan. The vials contained rocuronium and succinylcholine, drugs used in hospitals to relax muscles before surgery, according to the news release. Police tracked the drugs to an Upper Chesapeake Medical Center order and found that Ball took them home from the hospital illegally.

Police said neighbors told them that Ball’s dog Louie, a Plott Hound, had died just prior to the medication vials being found in the trashcan. As a result Harford County Animal Control began an investigation into the dog’s death and learned that Ball did not like the dog and tried to rehome him unsuccessfully.

Animal Control obtained Louie’s body from a veterinarian before the dog was transported to a crematorium and instead sent the body to the Pennsylvania State University Animal Diagnostic Laboratory for a necropsy.  Toxicological testing revealed that Louie’s cause of death was due to an overdose of rocuronium, according to the news release.

“Utilizing your license and position in a local hospital to illegally obtain medications and improperly administer them to kill your family dog is a gross violation of the trust placed in this defendant in his position as a medical professional,” State’s Attorney Alison Healey said in the news release.

Ball’s license has been referred to the Board of Pharmacy for review.

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