Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist
Carroll County, MD — A very graphic and hard to watch video has surfaced prompting backlash toward the Carroll County Sheriff’s office in Maryland after it showed one of their deputies shoot and kill a tiny ground hog.
According to the department spokesperson, Cpl. Jon Light, the deputy stopped and killed the ground hog because it was ‘acting oddly.’
To be entirely fair, many times animals become rabid and need to be put down as they pose a danger to the public. Many times, police officers are the ones who need to do this as it is often required of their duties. However, according to the department, it was unclear if the groundhog posed such danger as there had been no reports of it biting anyone or if it was rabid.
The incident happened on Sunday around 4 p.m. after the deputy stopped traffic in the middle of the highway to deal with the groundhog.
Justyna Olkowska witnessed the encounter while driving home from work in Sykesville, and posted a video of it on Facebook that has been viewed over 78,000 times.
The video, which has since been censored by Facebook, was posted with the following caption.
This just happened. And I’m soooo distraught!!!! Like I cannot believe I just witnessed this. If you’re not an animal lover, you won’t understand my pain…
Liberty rd. Sykesville Police shooting Grundhogs in a head in broad daylight. Please share. I may be wrong and he might have been doing his job but all I kept thinking was what if my little niece and nephew were in the car with me seeing this..
As the video begins, Olkowska was filming and laughing as the groundhog appeared to want to go in the officers direction. However, the laughter quickly turned into horror as the officer took aim and shot it.
“You see the groundhog coming after the officer. At this point in time, the animal was not acting as a normal animal would. It is within our policy to dispose of any animal that could pose a health threat,” Light said.
Indeed, it does appear that the groundhog was heading toward the officer. However, it is also entirely possible that it had been separated from its offspring—which were possibly located behind the deputy—and was trying to get to them.
“It started out as a cute encounter where I thought he was trying to help the little fella,” said Olkowska, who lives in Pikesville. “I obviously did not think that it would take this turn and was kind of shocked. I am sure the officer did the best thing in this situation. It is not for me to judge.”
While the Free Thought Project has reported on numerous instances of police officers killing animals, in our many years at it, we’ve never seen a cop kill a groundhog.
However, we have seen police officers shooting kittens in front of children. According to the North Ridgeville Police Department in Ohio, the police did nothing wrong when they discharged their weapons a few feet away from children in order to euthanize 5 kittens in 2013.
Also, last year, Matt Minnick, a small farmer in Portland, learned the hard way about police killing animals after a Washington County Sheriff’s Office Deputy feared for his life and shot and killed his top breeding goat—an animal that fills petting zoos across the world.
In 2015, another Washington County Sheriff’s Office Deputy shot and killed a 30-year-old pony, leaving a family heartbroken. The department was then caught covering up what really happened.
Sadly, the list of family pets who’ve met an early demise is far too long.
#1: GrandIsland To: Deckard (#0)
I must admit, I rolled my eyes at first, thinking this tool officer is stopping traffic to allow a ground rat to safely cross the road, I mean it is a filthy rodent... but I laughed my ass off when this nasty kritter almost makes it across and he dusts it with the sidearm. Ha
What a waste of good ammo. Well, it did find some use triggering the snowflakes
GrandIsland posted on 2018-05-09 06:41:44 Reply Private Reply
#2: Tooconservative To: GrandIsland (#1)
Tooconservative posted on 2018-05-09 07:53:55 Reply Private Reply
#3: Deckard To: Tooconservative, GrandIsland. (#2)
A brave cop would have just shooed it away instead of luring it into an ambush.
The groundhog was acting like a fricking groundhog.
It is however hilarious watching the brave "hero" cower in fear as he backs away from the 5 pound rodent - police work at it's finest!
Deckard posted on 2018-05-09 08:17:50 Reply Private Reply
#4: Tooconservative To: Deckard (#3)
No, it wasn't. It should have stayed off the roadway. It should have fled at the sight of a large predator (the cop).
It was likely very sick, injured, or had rabies.
And letting it go had a good chance of letting it spread its disease to others, like rabies or any other rodent diseases. If it was injured (like having already been hit by a car on that road), it would likely be dying of brain trauma or internal injuries and the cop's bullet ended its suffering.
Also, it is dangerous to allow animals to wander on public roads. People don't see it soon enough because it is so small, leading to people slamming on their brakes or swerving violently, possibly causing car crashes at road speeds.
There is nothing wrong with what this cop did, even if dumbasses get all upset and post crying and wailing videos on CreepBook.
Tooconservative posted on 2018-05-09 09:18:53 Reply Private Reply
#5: Pinguinite To: Deckard (#3)
It was acting unusually. Wild groundhogs should not have been approaching any person like that. If it were a domestic dog or cat, then it could be considered friendly and non-threatening. While the groundhog may have been fine and healthy, it was still acting oddly.
Pinguinite posted on 2018-05-09 09:43:26 Reply Private Reply
#6: no gnu taxes To: Pinguinite (#5)
I have never seen even a friendly domestic dog or cat approach a person like that when the person wasn't also acting friendly.
That creature was aggressive and upset.
no gnu taxes posted on 2018-05-09 14:08:57 Reply Private Reply
#7: GrandIsland To: Tooconservative (#4)
Or even distemper... but yes, leaving any WILD animal that isn’t acting normal, to roam free around domesticated dogs and cats, is a danger to the families of those dogs and cats.
Most GroundVarmits, skunks, Fox’s or raccoon’s, won’t intentionally run towards humans.
Leave it to pussified Dicktard, to cry over a GroundPig.
GrandIsland posted on 2018-05-09 18:51:52 Reply Private Reply
#8: A Pole To: Deckard (#0)
A Pole posted on 2018-05-09 19:07:15 Reply Private Reply
#9: A Pole To: Tooconservative (#4)
A Pole posted on 2018-05-09 19:08:43 Reply Private Reply
#10: GrandIsland To: A Pole (#9)
And all the other times, you’re snowflake wrong.
GrandIsland posted on 2018-05-09 21:37:11 Reply Private Reply
#11: nolu chan To: Deckard (#0)
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2018/05/daniel-zimmerman/maryland-deputy-shooting-groundhog-caught-on-video-by-motorist/
nolu chan posted on 2018-05-09 23:31:21 Reply Private Reply
#12: Tooconservative To: nolu chan, GrandIsland, A Pole, Pinguinite, Deckard (#11)
NYPost, 2014: Zoo in coverup after groundhog dropped by de Blasio dies
A week after Hizzoner dropped Staten Island Chuck in front of a crowd of spectators on Feb. 2, the winter-weather prognosticator died of internal injuries — and then the coverup began, The Post has learned.
Staten Island Zoo officials went to great lengths to hide the death from the public — and keep secret the fact that “Chuck” was actually “Charlotte,” a female impostor, sources said Wednesday.
The stand-in was found dead in her enclosure at the Staten Island Zoo on Feb. 9 — and a necropsy determined she died from “acute internal injuries,” sources said.
She had fallen nearly 6 feet when the mayor lost his grip during the Groundhog Day photo op. Sources said her injuries were consistent with a fall.
Instead of revealing the sad loss, the zoo — which gets nearly half of its $3.5 million in annual funding from the city — told the staff to keep the mayor’s office in the dark about the animal’s fate.
They told only a few zoo supporters — but claimed that the groundhog had died of natural causes.
“I was told he died of old age, that he went to that big farm in the sky,” said Assemblyman Matthew Titone (D-SI), who later learned how the animal had died.
The zoo also never revealed the biggest secret of all — that the part of Chuck was being played by Charlotte. Chuck was benched because the zoo feared he could bite de Blasio, as he did Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2009.
The zoo doesn’t make public that it has stand-in groundhogs to protect the “groundhog brand,” insiders said.. . .
There you have it, de Blasio (not his real name) murdered a lady groundhog and they tried to cover it all up. It's the lying that hurts the most.
Y'know, there isn't as much groundhog homicide news on any given news day as you might think. It's pretty rare because groundhogs do avoid people by nature. They're rather shy rodents. Most people go a lifetime and never see one outside a zoo.
Tooconservative posted on 2018-05-10 00:08:26 Reply Private Reply