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Do you turn yourself in when you catch yourself speeding?

Recall in the Bible where Jesus points out that even though the law forbids work on the Sabbath, it would be right to condemn anyone for getting their ox out of a well on the Sabbath. Stoning a farmer for rescuing an animal on the Sabbath to be right with the law misses the whole point of the law.

Over the years due to a pharisee-like attitude towards the law, as if it is an end to itself rather than a tool designed to help humanity, we have stripped government officials of the ability to use common sense in the application of the law , to decide whether a charge is in following the spirit of the law or merely to satisfy a quota or demanding rigid conformity. Used to be, an official could and would issue warnings and give people a chance to get right with the law rather than push things all the way and clog up the court system with frivolous matters.

Reportedly the guy was going through the process of getting the squirrel and coon registered as educational animals. His sanctuary For domestic animals is already legally registered. For some reason the state of NY has been stalling around on the applications for the coon and squirrel.

His sanctuary apparently has passed all inspections as he wasn’t shut down. He has no previous record of run ins with the law.

This isn’t a case of someone who has been abusing animals or neglecting animals. His animals were healthy and being cared for. They weren’t disease vectors because they weren’t exposed to the public or to other diseased animals. They were not in violation of the spirit of the law.

But whoever decided to conduct a full fledged gotcha style armed raid on a citizen with no criminal record for what should have been an ordinary good ol boy Andy Griffin face to face discussion was definitely overreaching. One guy or gal should have been enough to go explain the law, explain to the citizen about the permitting process, the options, inform him when they are going to pick up the animals or where he has to turn them in, and let the legal process work. You do that both because of respect to the citizens you serve and to reduce the chance of trauma to the animals. It isn’t as if the guy was poaching or smuggling wildlife and therefore expected to have animals secreted away in hidden locations and unbearable living conditions. He was open about rescuing and possessing the two critters. Too open, actually. And they weren’t abused or in danger...at least not until the jackboots showed up.

You don’t show up unannounced on a citizen with no criminal record or history of violations, dump crap over, look in a toilet tank as if you think a squirrel is somehow snorkeling in there daily, search through clothing, make leading or intimidating comments about immigration to a legal resident, etc... and there is no justification for trashing the house and leaving the house in worse shape than they found it. They could have called the guy and told him to have the animals ready. Then, if he pulled some stunt, or made some threats, you can justify a swat style team.

If we are going to rigidly and mindlessly enforce every law with as much aggression as possible, whether it is called for or not, perhaps someone should be going after officials for vandalism and intimidation.

Government officials really do need to be reminded that they are servants and not nobility.