Numbers and Variables of the 2024 Ludington Deer Cull

[XLFD]

In the last few years, we have all learned a hard lesson that when governments tell us that something you need to have done is "safe and effective", you just don't believe them.  The Ludington deer cull, forced on our community by our elected officials without a popular mandate, is just the latest example of why you need to have that skepticism.  Let's have an overview of the 2024 Ludington Deer Cull, looking at what we know and what we don't know.

You may recall from the "Trapped" article comments that I saw City Manager Mitch Foster the morning after the first cull (when I was caught in, then trespassed from, the area) looking at the Cartier Park Campground bathhouses and had a short chat with him at around 11:30 AM.  

I didn't snatch the number 26 out of thin air, I knew that morning that the cullers reported their numbers of 21 and 5 from the two locales.  Before I talked with Mitch Foster.  Astonishingly, when I asked the city manager whether he knew how many deer were culled during the night, he said he didn't know.  

But there's more in the realm of math that I can't comprehend.  If 21 deer were culled on the night of March 12th, why did I hear, at most, 14 shots that night, being within a couple hundred yards of several of them and hearing the reports of gunfire very clearly, even when I moved down to the pier?  And where did those deer come from?  I had been stalking silently through the forest for over 100 minutes and had not caught sight of one deer, how could a guy on the back of an ATV in the same lighting conditions for the most part see and kill 21 deer in just about one hour? 

That appears to have been the length of the cull.  The last shot I heard was around 8:30 (the first was around 7:38), and even though I left the area by 9:15, other "earwitnesses" living in that immediate area attest that they heard no more gunshots the rest of the night, including one who slept with their window open.  From observations, the trailer used for picking up deer rolled from the City's DPW building parking lot a little after 10 PM, signifying that they were through harvesting.

It's hard to figure out how 21 deer were shot with only 14 bullets in one hour that was mostly daylight, when I had wandered in the park for well over an hour and saw none.  Then there's another hard math problem in that Cartier Park is only 68 acres in area, and that includes the open campground.  In a square mile, there is 640 acres, so in about 1/10 of a square mile, there was minimally over 200 deer per square mile in this area-- presuming every single deer was killed in the park that night. 

And you can bet there would be a lot of deer leaving the area once those first loud shots were taken in that supposedly deer-filled park that had nearly 7 times the state average of 30/sq. mi. for deer density, assuming all deer stayed in the park and allowed themselves to be shot in that short foray on March 12th.  The number 21 is totally unbelievable, as would be the smaller number taken at the Depot (5) given the way they conducted it. 

Yet, this reporter knew that the number of reported kills the next morning would be the unbelievable amount of 26.  Had I used my advanced degree in the field of mathematics to develop an algorithm to figure out what the statistically optimal number of reported kills would be to justify the deer cull's success, despite whether more or less deer were actually killed-- or did I just overhear conversation between deer cullers settling on a reported amount?  That will remain a secret for now.

The Ludington Torch organized three sets of ears for both locations when the night of March 19th rolled around with obvious signs (police presence, barricades and/or signs) indicating it would go forth that night.  After leaving Lakeview Cemetery at around 6:30 PM under the watchful eyes of LPD, this reporter reviewed the Depot property and as night approached, moved over to the Ludington DPW Building for the rest of the night, leaving shortly after the trailer with the ATV arrived a little after midnight, indicating that they were through shooting. 

The three sets of ears near Cartier Park heard one shot all night from that area, the six ears near the Depot heard one shot all night from that scene.  We were told that they took seven more deer that night, six from Cartier, one from the Depot.  Hogwash; how do you kill seven deer with two gunshots?  You can't even make the case for two females with twins and triplets within them ready to be born. 

When the first trailer came to the DPW on March 19th, shortly before midnight, the trailer used for hauling deer carcasses, they backed up to one of the DPW's bays, presumably to back into a place where they could start processing the meat, or at least field dress the deer in good lighting.  As per plan, on the night of March 12th they left several black contractor bags in the dumpster seen above near the overhead door, these bags had some deer remains in them, one could tell by the smell.  After they left early on March 20th, they would leave nothing in that dumpster.  

They certainly acted like they had something, backing into the bay far enough to be able to conceal what they unloaded, if they unloaded anything.  Moments before backing up, one of the two cullers walked directly over to the dumpster that I was hiding behind shining his flashlight.  Worrying that I had somehow been seen I went deeper into shadow and was relieved that he stopped at the side of the dumpster I was behind and relieved himself in the grass.  I guess the bathrooms in the DPW weren't good enough for him.  

They pulled the trailer out again in a couple minutes and immediately closed the overhead door, it was as if they were conscious that they may be under scrutiny.  I saw no deer corpses, but that doesn't mean there was some successfully hid from my sight-- the absence of black bags in the dumpster was better proof.  

Unaccountability and secrecy has been the hallmark of the Ludington deer cull.  The city manager has been asked for various records in the city's possession regarding this deer cull and what has been the most telling is that the city government, paying up to $20,000 for this service, has had no means of accountability, and they have chosen to remain ignorant on everything about this cull rather than know what's going on.

They cannot show that 26 deer were killed the night of the first cull other than by what they were told by the APHIS Coordinator David Madrigal, who gets that information secondhand from the three cullers who actually were there.  How were they to know that bagging 21 deer in the 68 acres of Cartier Park in a couple hours was for all purposes mathematically impossible?  Or that knocking off five at the Depot on the same night was equally improbable when they don't even bait the deer or get out of their truck parked on the side of the street?

City leaders are so out of it that they have told us all along that these were the most qualified individuals, government sharpshooters with degrees, something much greater and safer than hunters who can come in and clean up the deer problem here, which still has never been quantified.  Yet when I recently sent a FOIA to find out the names, training, experience, and other qualifications of the three or more deer cullers who came to Ludington on March 12th and/or 19th, I was informed that nobody in the city had that information.

City leaders lied to us, these cull people are independent contractors of unknown skill, experience or training, who came in their non-government trucks and trailers and shot rifles within 100 feet of some homes on Dowland and Staffon Street into an area that had no barriers for traffic on those two city streets or for foot traffic.   Contractors so safe that they began firing shots without warning in Cartier Park from the back of an ATV when I and perhaps one other person, was still in the park. 

And these unknown contractors, who have their identities protected by the local and federal government, also lied to us, since for what reason would they need to tell us the truth?

[Willy]

Did anyone check the park and depot for blood. If 26 deer were killed in such a small amount of area there would have been blood all over the place. Even skilled hunters may not drop a deer with only one shot and if wounded, a deer can travel a long distance before dying. With this kind of massacre there should have been some evidence of deer kills even if the deer were dressed out after being removed. Also, 26 deer could have weighed as much as 1.5 tons. That's a lot of deer in those small trailers. That is a lot of deer material not easily handled in a short period of time.
Did these cullers take pictures of the deer before and after they were killed? That would have been proof enough that a cull really did take place. A relative of mine has a guide service for hunting and every hunt is recorded on video from which still images can be extracted. This could easily have been done for Ludington's cull. Your right X. Without proof this entire situation is like the Moon Landing conspiracy or the rumor that Nancy Pelosi is still a virgin.

[XLFD]

When I ran into City Manager Foster the day after, I was in the middle of casing the park in order to find any of the 21 places where gun violence occurred, but I found nothing other than a few places where the ATV left the roads or paths.  Mitch Foster has claimed that the hunters shoot for the head, so there wouldn't be much of a mess, but hunters know head shots are not good shots for downing deer, and there would still be a mess left behind along with blood and brain matter spattering.  Plus, there would likely be several deer still around suffering from non-fatal head wounds if 21 were actually killed with head shots, dropping blood all over the place.  

After two hours I found nothing, not one bloody leaf or any indication that deer were dragged over the forest's mat of leaves.  Two other people looking around that day found one dead deer among the fens beside the campground, without signs of it being shot and looking more than a week dead.  This has all the signs of a big hoax that our city leaders had to be part of, and I'm one that believes we had moon landings.  What kind of idiot in charge of running a city would avoid getting proof of a contractor's work, unless they were part of the scam?

[XLFD]

Here's another tidbit on the numbers and variables theme, courtesy of the April 8 council packet.  All sources seem to agree that seven deer were killed on March 19.  On page 61 of the packet we see this:

"7 all from Cartier Park" he says, but then we have as part of a summary from some unknown person from the USDA on p. 107:

Now if all agree that on March 12, 21 and 5 deer were killed in CP and the Depot respectively, this means that on the 19th, not all 7, but 5 were killed in CP and 2 at the Depot.  Why would Foster say none were shot at the Depot?  Maybe because it was what the police in the area for site security told him, they would know.  Probably because not only were there earwitnesses in the area, but there were also eyewitnesses among the public too.  Somebody needs to tell the USDA that their 'imaginary numbers' need to be adjusted due to their lack of believability.

And you will note that in my article I used the numbers 6 and 1.  Those were the numbers I heard from a credible source.  The problem when you are not telling the truth or have any need for accountability, the numbers will vary because it's a lot harder to keep your story straight.

[Willy]

I agree X. Also what the City, DNR and other experts have succeeded in doing is to discover the most amazing method of hunting known to mankind. Magically they have been able to pin point the exact time in our universe when 33 deer were able to be harvested in an unbelievable small space of time without leaving so much as a trace of that harvest. There must be a time/space continuum machine that these people have invented to accomplish such a feat. Now if they can only reduce this machine to fit in the average hunters pocket then any person could become a master of their hunting destiny. X, what are the odds that this amazing hunting feat could actually happen. There must be a mathematical formula for this. Either that or maybe these cullers are from way out of town.

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