diff --git a/django/db/backends/__init__.py b/django/db/backends/__init__.py
index 3baf752ec4..632dd36639 100644
--- a/django/db/backends/__init__.py
+++ b/django/db/backends/__init__.py
@@ -5,10 +5,6 @@ except ImportError:
     # Import copy of _thread_local.py from Python 2.4
     from django.utils._threading_local import local
 
-def _dict_helper(desc, row):
-    "Returns a dictionary for the given cursor.description and result row."
-    return dict(zip([col[0] for col in desc], row))
-
 class BaseDatabaseWrapper(local):
     """
     Represents a database connection.
diff --git a/django/db/backends/util.py b/django/db/backends/util.py
index bd66a1ddbe..fa2df22927 100644
--- a/django/db/backends/util.py
+++ b/django/db/backends/util.py
@@ -124,11 +124,3 @@ def truncate_name(name, length=None):
     hash = md5.md5(name).hexdigest()[:4]
 
     return '%s%s' % (name[:length-4], hash)
-
-##################################################################################
-# Helper functions for dictfetch* for databases that don't natively support them #
-##################################################################################
-
-def _dict_helper(desc, row):
-    "Returns a dictionary for the given cursor.description and result row."
-    return dict(zip([col[0] for col in desc], row))