Posted on 05/08/2018 8:31:38 AM PDT by Simon Green
A police officer was seen shooting a groundhog in the middle of Liberty Road in Carroll County, upsetting some onlookers.
A video posted by one woman shows the officer killing the groundhog after it charges at him.
"This just happened. And I’m soooo distraught," wrote Justyna Olkowska on Facebook.
She said she was disturbed to see "Sykesville police shooting [groundhogs] in [the] head in broad daylight."
"Like I cannot believe I just witnessed this. If you’re not an animal lover, you won’t understand my pain," she wrote. "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."
The groundhog was shot by a Carroll County Sheriff's Office, confirmed the department, not the separate Sykesville Police Department.
The incident happened at about 4 p.m. Sunday, when a deputy was travelling on Liberty Road/Route 26 in the area of White Rock Road in Eldersburg, said the Sheriff's Office in a statement.
"He found that the groundhog in question was walking into the roadway, causing vehicles to stop and creating a hazard," said the Sheriff's Office. "He got out of his vehicle to assess, and as he tried to direct the groundhog off of the roadway, he realized that it was not responding as expected for an animal that was not being cornered or trapped. Believing the groundhog to be either sick or injured, the deputy then put the animal down for the public's safety."
Now we will never know why the ground hog “tried” to cross the road,
Now we will never know why the ground hog “tried” to cross the road,
Right. Same with this pair. Very busy WM. I hope she’s not being harrassed as rotten people always have to eff with animals or other people’s property. There was a nesting pair where I have a storage unit...this was last year. I noticed her egg had been destroyed a few weeks later. Not sure if from an animal or a human did it.
Snowflakes, anyone?
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Guess there weren’t any dogs around they could pump bullets into as they are prone to doing at the drop of a hat
All he had to do was walk towards the darned thing, what a big sissy
In Maryland, groundhogs are rodents and may be hunted year round no license needed (I think).
Plus, if properly prepared are kind of tasty.
A groundhog running around playing on the road was probably sick and needed to be dispatched.
Safe transit is also more important than a rodent.
“In a sane world, decent men and women would humanely put down sick or injured wildlife without getting a dozen levels of “official clearance” to do so.”
Probably had to get permission to discharge his duty weapon. These days CYA is Job #1.
Reminds me a scene from the movie “Patton” where the general dispatches donkey holding up a relief column.
"...permission to discharge duty weapon..."
It’s probably a liability thing. Someone probably did something stupid in the distant past and screwed it up for those coming after.
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