Residents upset after Md. deputy shoots groundhog blocking traffic

Fox Baltimore ^ | 05/07/18

[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."

[Vigilanteman]

Yeah, plus they are not the cute little cuddly creatures like Punxsutawney Phil portrays.They can destroy you vegetable garden in just a few hours if they have a mind to and dig holes in your dike which can flood your yard or basement.

Their dual virtues are (1)they are easy enough to shoot with a pistol if you are a decent shot and (2)they make tasty jerky if you know how to process it. Pennsylvania's nice friendly little town of Punxsutawney will actually hand out recipes during the Ground Hog Day celebration if you ask around.

Furthermore, if you can convince the locals that you are genuinely interested in sampling some, they might even give you a taste or point out where you can buy some. Like most of us out in the SW corner of the state, they are a little wary of city slickers who want to paint us as a bunch of hicks who kill and eat wild game, especially the town mascot.

[spincaster]

I shoot one day from my hay field that attaches to my garden. This happens everyday in the country. Move along nothing to see here.

[Pecos]

Should the groundhog have been shot only at night, or possibly in some other body part?

[Georgia Girl 2]

Ground hog lives matter.

[miniTAX]

The groundhog obviously deserved it for not following the officer’s reasonable instructions of:
“SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!!! GET ON THE GROUND!!! STAND UP!! DO THE HOKEY-POKEY!!!”

---

Fakenews!
The groundhog never charged to the officer. Many witnesses can attest it shouted “hands up, don’t shoot” just before being summarily executed.

[Boomer]

Sounds like the cop did this little critter a favor by putting it out of its misery. At some level I wonder if the critter didn’t do this on purpose. Suicide by cop by a groundhog.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Saw this on our local news last night.

PETA types whining about daring to kill an extremely common large pest.

Instead, the whining SHOULD be about how much they held up the traffic trying to see if this creature would get to the other side.

When it took too long and the animal seemed rabid (assertively approaching the officer), FINALLY they shot it.

Absurd making all this effort for the groundhog as is. Should’ve shot it sooner.

(BTW, I’m an animal lover and always try to help, but decisions need to be made in a timely fashion, and they are NOT humans so honestly, it’s really not terribly important.)

[Pollster1]

Groundhogs are not the only rodents to get rabies, but they are the ones that get it most often. Aggressive behavior in a groundhog is very rare and usually a sign of a serious disease. Shooting this rodent was the right call.

As for the head shot, I’ll never complain about an instant kill. I live in the People’s Republic of Maryland, and I love the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office. They are the best in the Baltimore area, and I would expect their officers to hit what they shoot. I spend enough range time next to a lot of them at the local gun range.

[Ancesthntr]

“I may be wrong and he might have been doing his job....”

---

Many times a person or a story provides its own answers. This is one of those times.

If the groundhog - a herbivore - charged a human in broad daylight, chances are it had rabies, or at least a mental defect. Maybe that’s why this idiot was distraught...she obviously felt a kinship with another dain bramaged being.

[dis.kevin]

0r tazed it.

[TXnMA]

"And of course the groundhog LUNGED at the officer making the officer FEAR FOR HIS LIFE."

Precisely the behavior of rabid animals.

At the end of a successful before-freezeover fishing visit to a MA pond, I decided to sit in my Jeep and warm up with some coffee before loading my one-man boat on its roof rack. As I stepped back out onto the ground, I felt something "tackle" my right leg! Fortunately, I was wearing heavy, high-topped boots...

Instinctively, I gave a kick, and a raccoon flew out from under the jeep and smacked into a nearby tree. As soon as it righted itself, it charged me -- but a swift kick under the chin put it back at the base of the tree -- upside down and, momentarily stunned..

Thinking that it was one of the family of raccoons who routinely begged for scraps at the fish cleaning table, I tossed it a small fish. But, in its zeal to get at me, it ignored the flopping fish -- walking on it with all four feet -- and continued to charge me!

There was no way I could load the boat with that vicious varmint attacking my legs, so I tried to scare it off with a shot from my .22 backup pistol. The round impacted right in front of it, blasting sand and gravel right into its face. Not only did it not stop its charge -- it didn't even blink!

That time, I booted it down the steep bank, and when it charged back up, I put a .380 "Glaser" round straight down between its shoulder blades. Thus ended the encounter.

After I got the boat loaded, (using my gloves) I picked up the carcass and laid it atop a box near the only light pole. And, on my way home, I stopped by the local PD, related my tale, (they knew me, and had issued my LTC) and told them where they could find the critter to have it tested for rabies.

A couple of weeks later, I got a call from our police chief, informing me that the State lab had found the raccoon to be rabid...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The only wild animals I've encountered whose normal behavior is to "lunge at" humans are venomous snakes and wild (feral) hogs. All others that do so are exhibiting symptoms of dangerous, neurological disease. Non-cranial shots are the best way to deal with them.

(BTW, your irrational police-hatred is showing...)

TXnMA
 

[Tallguy]

[Mears]

“A couple of weeks later, I got a call from our police chief, informing me that the State lab had found the raccoon to be rabid... “

—

Why on earth did it take a couple of weeks?

.

[pas]

Should have been Phil. Little shit was way off for spring this year.

[MeganC]

“(BTW, your irrational police-hatred is showing...)”

You haven’t had the same experiences in life that I have.

[TXnMA]

Apparently, the “State Lab” was a one-bureaucrat operation...

[Hot Tabasco]

I just had to stop on a major three lane northbound highway for a pair of geese and six babies taking their own sweet time crossing the highway........damn geese are everywhere here in S.E. Michigan..........

[beaversmom]

Dad goose at WalMart (Colorado) yesterday:

The Mama:

[hellinahandcart]

Please send the deputy up to Cecil County. We have a ton of groundhogs.

[Hot Tabasco]

Last year at this time, a local Lowe’s Hardware store had a pair of mallard ducks build their nest in the median underneath a small tree between the main driveway and the parking lot.......I can’t understand it considering all the people walking right by the nest going in and out of the store all day long........