Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 5:23am

Bambi: Enemy of the State

Giggles

 

 

Hattip to Mary Katherine Ham at Hot Air.  One of the best arguments against big government is that inevitably its minions, not having enough real work to do, will engage in stupidity like this:

 

In Wisconsin, yet another example of the government’s overzealous attempts to punish citizens for good-faith interactions with wildlife, even if they’re saving said wildlife. This time, an armed raid to capture and euthanize a fawn at an animal shelter, which was on its way to a wildlife preserve. Government is just a word for things we do together, Bambi:

It was like a SWAT team,” shelter employee Ray Schulze said.

Two weeks ago, Schulze was working in the barn at the Society of St. Francis on the Kenosha-Illinois border when a swarm of squad cars arrived and officers unloaded with a search warrant.

“(There were) nine DNR agents and four deputy sheriffs, and they were all armed to the teeth,” Schulze said.

The focus of their search was a baby fawn brought there by an Illinois family worried she had been abandoned by her mother.

“When it made a little noise, it sounded like it was laughing,” Schulze said.

Schulze videotaped the fawn they named Giggles during the two weeks she was there. The Department of Natural Resources began investigating after two anonymous calls reporting a baby deer at the no-kill shelter.

The warden drafted an affidavit for the search warrant, complete with aerial photos in which he described getting himself into a position where he was able to see the fawn going in and out of the barn.

Agents told staff they came to seize the deer because Wisconsin law forbids the possession of wildlife.

So, they took the deer and killed it. Mercifully, I guess, the state has chosen not to press charges against this animal shelter for the horrible crime of trying to rehabilitate a deer abandoned by its mother in an animal shelter and transfer it to a wildlife preserve in Illinois, where wild deer are permitted by law. Apparently, if the shelter had had a state-issued permit for keeping a wild deer, everything would have been fine, which suggests keeping one is not inherently dangerous, despite that being the Department of Natural Resources’ justification for killing the fawn.

The representative of the animal shelter gave the government far too much credit:

“I was thinking in my mind they were going to take the deer and take it to a wildlife shelter, and here they come carrying the baby deer over their shoulder. She was in a body bag,” Schulze said. “I said, ‘Why did you do that?’ He said, ‘That’s our policy,’ and I said, ‘That’s one hell of a policy.’”

And a government spokesperson literally likened the raid to a drug bust:

“Could you have made a phone call before showing up, I mean, that’s a lot of resources,” WISN 12 News investigative reporter Colleen Henry asked.

“If a sheriff’s department is going in to do a search warrant on a drug bust, they don’t call them and ask them to voluntarily surrender their marijuana or whatever drug that they have before they show up,” Niemeyer said,

 

 

My wife and I have contributed to this no kill animal shelter in the past.  Evil idiocy like this is why I am a conservative.  Government is, at best, a necessary evil.  Oftentimes the evil part of that equation stands out far more out than the necessary part.

Update:  Hattip to commenter Phillip for the video:

 

I love the disease argument to justify the killing of the fawn.  This is Wisconsin!  During certain times of the year it seems like every other car has a buck draped across it.  Deer roam all about the state.  The idea that this fawn posed some sort of dangerous health hazard, especially when it was being transferred to a wildlife sanctuary, is farcial.  The simple truth is that this was a huge overreaction by wannabe Rambos, except that Rambo never demonstrated his manhood by killing a fawn.  I can only hope that someday they will have to match themselves against:  BAMBO!

 

 

 

 

 

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BobTanaka
Thursday, August 1, AD 2013 2:34pm

Yeah, selling drugs, helping baby animals, what’s the difference? And I love how they showed up ‘armed to the teeth,’ because you never know what that fawn might be packing.

Incidentally, I have to wonder what kind of sick busybody calls the police because someone has a baby deer at their animal shelter? “Obviously I had to do something; their selfless compassion just couldn’t be allowed to continue!”

Phillip
Phillip
Thursday, August 1, AD 2013 3:25pm

“I guess we should be thankful they didn’t napalm the place.”

Ummm. Roast deer.

Phillip
Phillip
Thursday, August 1, AD 2013 3:44pm

Some more on this:

Clinton
Clinton
Friday, August 2, AD 2013 1:46am

I used to think that it would be difficult for ‘Hope and Change’ to be jammed
down our throats because the conservative ethos was strong amongst law
enforcement and our military.

Stories like this make me think that mine was just wishful thinking. Now, I’m
starting to think they’ll mindlessly do whatever they’re told, no matter how
absurd or unconstitutional– or evil.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, August 2, AD 2013 7:35am

Regarding deer and hunting in gemneral.

If it’s brown it’s down.

If it flies it dies.

If it hops it drops.

Clinton,

Bingo! You are 100% correct. They’re mercenary thugs.

I saw a story where a SWAT attacked a young co-ed outside a liquor store b/c she may have been under-age.

There have been cases where liberal terrorists (I nrepeat myself) made phony 911 calls that a house was invaded and the unlucky home-owner was shot as he tried to defend his family from SS, gestapo storm troopers.

CatholicLawyer
CatholicLawyer
Friday, August 2, AD 2013 10:11am

For all you nay sayers and bitter clingers: I’m glad we were able to get aerial photographs of this obviously dangerous and wild animal. Just look at its evil beady eyes and it use of camouflage plainly shows it was trying to avoid detection so it could continue on its dangerous and wild path. The investigating DNR officer showed true dedication risking his life getting into position to take said photographs and watch this diseased infested creature spread its filth in the barn yard. In and out of the barn all day, how could one watch that! The horror . . . the horror! No telling what tragedies were averted by these heroic officers’ actions! And those shelter employees aiding and abetting this wild and dangerous animal. I am incredulous that they were going to send it to a WILD LIFE PERSERVE where it could continue in its dangerous and wild life! What were they thinking!!

It is obvious that this fawn was unwanted by its mother so it is for the best that the officers aborted this unviable tissue mass post-uterus (it needed the shelter workers to feed it and care for it. It could not live on its own). Just think how the officers spared it a life of misery and pain knowing it was unwanted and unloved. These officers are true humanitarians – better dead than unwanted and unloved.

I am sure glad that my tax dollars are so well spent.

James
James
Friday, August 2, AD 2013 11:50am

Clinton, it is not difficult at all to imagine hope and change being jammed down the throats of conservatives. Most of the “conservatives” I know, whether in the police or military or not, may be for the 2nd Amendment, and against re-writing history in schools and things like that, but they are almost all to a tee in favor of abortion, and they don’t care about homosexual marriage or rights or whatever, as long as they don’t have to watch it in their bedrooms. Punishment for embracing a heinous evil like abortion can come in many forms, including watching your country go down the tubes.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, August 2, AD 2013 11:53am

I think it was Glenn Reynolds who recently had a brief piece on a mess of armed liquor authority agents who accosted an adolescent (one jumping on the roof of her car) who had purchased bottled water.

It is simply unbelievable that this sort of thing is compelled by state statutes. The name of every person in the chain of command between the bureau chief and the flatfeet in question needs to be published, with their home address.

Did you catch the bit about the anonymous caller. What sort of a person would do that?

Some years ago, a shirt-tail relation of mine was threatened with legal action by an official of the homeowners association where he lived. It seems that some paint he had applied recently to repair a mar on the side of his house did not match the surrounding to the satisfaction of the official. He told her that he used the color specified in the deed and she wanted to have him served, just do it.

That woman is the sort of person who calls the cops on people caring for deer.

Foxfier
Admin
Friday, August 2, AD 2013 12:52pm

Read the original article, with a critical eye.

The “armed to the teeth” claim is from the guy who is probably a husband to the owner. Same guy who thought they shot the deer on site, when they tranquilized it.

There was enough prior interaction that this same guy assumed the DNR was there to transport the deer.

There’s no information on how many employees were at the shelter, what the actual arms were– I’m betting on the normal gun and radio squirrel cops pack, and the deputies with their 47 dozen non-lethal “options” required by prior lawsuits– or even how many vehicles there were. (I’m betting two cop cars, largely to keep an eye on the DNR, a car for the paper-pusher DNRs, a pickup for the guys who were bored and were brought to “help” in case there were more wild animals, and the animal transport car with the two guys for tranquilizing any deer they found– one to actually do it, and the other to verify he’s not selling the drugs, possibly plus one more to actually carry the animal. You should see the setup our vet has for their tranquilizers– it’s actually a big break-in risk. And the Forest Service, DNR, etc are always in groups of three or four. In the forest, I can justify it– you walk over a hill and find a pot operation, you WANT enough folks to outnumber the tenders or your widow will want to know why.)

People “rescuing” wild animals, usually deer, actually is a problem– especially in an animal shelter that’s not set up to deal with wild animals. In the BEST case, they just get the fawn killed because they’re mistaking a bedded down fawn for an orphaned one– deer aren’t helicopter parents– and in less good cases, they’re able to “save” the animal because it’s very ill. Bonus, the deer may have been brought across the state line, and they were going to send it back across to an actual animal rehab center. You can look up deer diseases, including bTB (in which case you put down the animal to protect other deer) and other things that are much nastier looking.

Too bad the supposedly great investigative reporter that wrote the article couldn’t be bothered to offer facts instead of quotes.

It would be handy to know a lot of the details, like if the “aerial photography” was from the neighbor’s window– she has the details, alluded to how it was managed, but doesn’t bother to report it– what the warrant was for, other things.

No, instead we get to hear about an idiot who thinks gunshots are silent, and his wife who is mourning the deer that she should have known would have to be put down because of her stupidity.

If you’re going to get outraged about this stuff, look for solid articles like the outrages from the Endangered Species act, or the guy who planted lynx fur all over the state from the dead pelt at the headquarters and kept his job, or the way they imported a pack of wolves into the Methow Valley…and eventually sent a real SWAT team to take things not allowed in the warrant, when they knew the only person there was a retired lady smaller than I am, because her step-son is a poacher and her husband took pictures of the Methow pack.

Foxfier
Admin
Friday, August 2, AD 2013 12:56pm

I’m all for abolishing federal land management outside of their parks, and putting public land down to the county level– put animal disease control over to the public health folks, same as dumping raw sewage.

But I can’t stand being manipulated by the same sort of folks who got these laws put into place in the first place. No matter how refreshing it is to see a fluff piece with the DNR as the bad guys.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, August 2, AD 2013 1:35pm

Not buying it.

CatholicLawyer
CatholicLawyer
Friday, August 2, AD 2013 1:56pm

Foxfier, not to awake your wrath but I am sure wild animals every day do not cross the state lines between Illinois and Wisconsin without being properly sanitized. I am sure in pre-historic times the animals knew where the state line would be and did not cross also. I know I try not to go into Illinois. Sorry Don. As to some of your other points – it’s the media and they have an agenda. I discount almost everything I read from the MSM.

You seem very passionate about the subject. Is there a reason?

I did read with a “critical eye” and found lots of information missing but found enough to make light of the situation. I also read your post with a “critical eye” and found that you assumed a lot of facts and did not provide evidence to support such claims. I like reading your posts here and, if you are the same person, on Ricochet. There are well thought out and insightful.

Take care and may God watch out for you!

CatholicLawyer
CatholicLawyer
Friday, August 2, AD 2013 2:26pm

“They” not There, sorry for the poor English.

Foxfier
Admin
Friday, August 2, AD 2013 2:54pm

Foxfier, not to awake your wrath but I am sure wild animals every day do not cross the state lines between Illinois and Wisconsin without being properly sanitized.

Which would be a great point, if we could be reasonably sure that folks dumb enough to pick up a fawn aren’t also dumb enough to move it into an entirely different pool of animals.

. I am sure in pre-historic times the animals knew where the state line would be and did not cross also.

You may have noticed that political lines are often drawn along natural ones– rivers, mountains, etc. The boundries that cause people to form different communities are often the same ones that cause animals to form different populations.

Of course I’m passionate about it– both for the content of the last paragraph in my last post, drawn from first-hand observation, and because when our side falls for this kind of emotional manipulation it makes the guys who regularly abuse it harder to defend against.
This type of article is very old hat to me, from the target side– part of my mom’s job on the ranch is making as sure as we can that such hatchet jobs don’t happen about our operation. It’s odd in that they have the DNR as bad guys, that’s about it.

I really dislike seeing conservatives trigger as easily from unsupported claims of DNR SWAT-like teams in part because of the lesson from the story of the boy who cried wolf. Seriously bad things happen, as I listed examples of, and reacting very strongly to very little evidence of bad conduct makes us look bad and weakens response to serious, well supported outrages.

Since you read my post with such a critical eye, I do hope you noticed that; I don’t attempt to hide where I’m coming from, and why I make assumptions about the situation. I drew my assumptions from first-hand interaction, and from the fact that the claims were from either someone who very foolishly broke the law and put the animals they supposedly care about at risk, and the reporter who rather skillfully wrote an article based on emotion.

When someone feels the need to use slight of hand, it’s a pretty good bet that they don’t have enough to support their desired story openly. Double so when their by-line makes a big deal of how much of an investigator they are.

I am the same person as on Rico– same icon, too, and I try to plug here, CatholicStand and According to Hoyt as often as possible.

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