Battery Arrest Over Hedgehog Custody Dispute

MAY 21--A dispute over custody of a hedgehog turned violent Sunday evening when a Florida woman allegedly struck her mother several times in an attempt to take the spiny mammal from the family’s home.

Police say that Emma Davisson, 18, had been arguing with her mother about “living arrangements...and following directions” when the teenager announced that she was “packing her things and going to leave” the Seminole residence.

Davisson, seen at right, also told her mother that she would be departing in the company of the family’s pet hedgehog, which resided in the bedroom of Davisson’s younger siblings.

But Davisson’s mother, 43, balked at the hedgehog removal, saying that “the younger siblings in the house are the one who are caring for it,” according to an arrest affidavit.

In an attempt to keep the hedgehog in residence, Davisson’s mother told cops, “she was blocking the defendant from going into her siblings room.” That is when Davisson allegedly “pushed and hit her mother several times to get into the room.” The altercation, cops noted, was witnessed “by all of the siblings.”

Davisson, cops say, acknowledged pushing her mother, but claimed that it was only after she had been “pushed/shoved” by her parent. The teen denied striking her mother in the face.

Arrested on a misdemeanor domestic battery count, Davisson was booked into the county jail, from which she was released early yesterday on her own recognizance.

A judge ordered Davisson to have no contact with her mother. The teen will be allowed a one-time visit to her family’s home--in the presence of law enforcement--to retrieve personal items. Those belongings will not include the hedgehog, whose name, age, and sex are not disclosed in court records. (1 page)