In a case that highlights absolutely everything wrong with this country, Wisconsin state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) agents and sheriff's deputies "armed to the teeth" raided a non-profit no kill shelter based on multiple anonymous tips of a deer on the premises. Aerial photos were taken, warrant issued, and the raid ensued by heavily armed agents. The staff was corralled, not permitted to make calls and a cellphone was confiscated to delete pictures of the raid. A baby deer (named Giggles by the staff) was indeed seized and stuffed into a body bag...and then promptly killed by the agents. The presiding warden compared it to a drug raid to justify the SWAT-like tactics.
I. Friggin'. Kid. You. Not.
Yes dear civilized world, heavily armed agents of a state government in the U.S.A. have raided a no-kill animal shelter to execute with extreme prejudice an internationally recognized symbol for gentleness, helplessness and innocence. Yes world, this is America today, where militarized assault has become the answer to even the most minimal threat.
Armed Agents Raid Shelter to Seize a Fawn
Fall on down for more on the not funny national face palm.
[UPDATE: The story has gone viral, now making its appearance overseas in Australian media and other sites around the world. That is good news, for not only does this one state agency need to be shamed, America needs to own up to this shame internationally. If it takes shame to force us to deal with our problem of hyper fear and SWAT-ing of even the most trivial, non-threatening problem, I'm all for it. It is this jack-booted heavy-handedness that creates real danger and is far more terrorizing to our population than a vague threat of "terror" from some poor bastard we just took out with a drone attack without proof of guilt as he sipped tea on a mat in Waziristan with his buddies.]
So a local family finds a fawn they believed abandoned by its mother, so they take it to the shelter. Some whacked if-you-see-it-say-it super citizen notified the authorities. Department of Natural Resources investigates covertly, including capturing aerial photos showing the deer. They get a warrant. Heavily armed agents raid the place, staffed by animal loving volunteers. They find the deer. They seize the deer. They kill the deer (according to subsequent inquiry into the fate of the deer). Wisconsin law does not permit possession of wild animals you see. So it requires a SWAT like raid. With guns. Lots of them.
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.
This is wrong on so many levels:
Are we over this police state shit yet? Does every damned thing require a SWAT like approach? It was a fucking baby deer! ...at a shelter...staff mostly by kids. W.T.F. ENOUGH of this bullshit. And this took a raid? A warrant? Aerial shots? What, they send up a drone? Why not have a local DNR lady drive up in her state truck and walk through the fucking door like a sane human being? Where is the proportionality in our society?
"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.
Must EVERY public agency be militarized? For ALL that is HOLY! where is our perspective. We MUST stop the now genuinely PSYCHOTIC penchant to feed the death merchants peddling weapons and Rambo gear with our tax dollars. To keep us "safe" you see. TO KEEP US SAFE??? We've now got armed agents raiding no kill animal shelters!!! Feel safe anyone?
Demand your towns cull this shit from the budgets. How much of our public treasure across all levels of government are we spending on this crap?
What? Now we got super sleuth citizens snooping about everything? As if the NSA doesn't already know your shit already? Can we please learn to politely ask about things and stop crapping in our pants about everything? Who calls anonymously to report a baby deer is being cared for by a shelter? Are we really this afraid.
Of course, the final solution was that after they seized the deer, they killed it. If this does not show the death of common sense and larger metaphor for our honest-to-Abe national insanity, I don't know what it.
People, we have got to get a grip. We are literally losing our collective minds.
UPDATE: Just a thought. I think WTF!? has now officially become a noun. In fact, it might even be a proper noun, like a place name for the general geographic location of our civic sanity.
Thanks for the Rec List. This story should go so viral the planet shifts on its axis from all the head shaking. There is no meter in the world that measures this level of stupid.
UPDATE 2: Take a look at the Wisconsin DNR Facebook comment thread page. They are being excoriated. https://www.facebook.com/...
UPDATE 3: I've been reading the Facebook comments and more news is coming to light. Like how the agents corralled the staff (essentially at gunpoint) and onsite contractors and refused to let them leave or even call anyone. How one agent seized the phone of one who was taking pictures of the raid and deleted the photos. How the agents went far outside the search for the deer and searched the residential quarters, clearly fishing for anything else when their own warrant made clear they knew the animal was in the barn. I've read of the callousness of stuffing the fawn into a bodybag.
Reading further we learn of what appears to be an ongoing political vendetta against the shelter owner by the local authorities.
I really want to rant here about a powerful segment in our society which I think is now acting like heirs of the Nazis and I mean it. I know to express this will provoke throngs to chastise me with chants of "Godwin!!" Maybe. But, people need to understand that what occurred in Germany in the 1930s, or Italy, CAN happen here. In fact, Americans may be MORE predisposed to this risk than other societies because of our "Exceptionalist" myths/indoctrination and our high percentage of religious fundamentalists.
People will still be yelling "Godwin" up to the very day authorities show up at your house, applying methods more suitable to Seal Team 6 hunting Osama Bin Laden. If they'll gear up for a baby deer, imagine how they'll take you down.
