Trapped in Cartier Park: A Victim's Tale of the Ludington Deer Cull

[XLFD]

On Tuesday, March 12th, this reporter was alerted early on that the Ludington DPW was setting up barricades around Cartier Park in preparation for the deer cull by the USDA's APHIS Wildlife Management squad.  Later that morning, I went to the park and scouted around the area and found that they had replenished a bait pile with fresh corn.  As baiting in a city park was a violation of state and local law, I got my rake out and raked all the corn under last fall's leaf drop, like I had previously done. 

If you can't tell, or are not one of our regular readers, I am not a fan of the deer cull; I find it a colossal waste of money and a bigger threat to public safety than the deer that the public seems to enjoy seeing at Ludington's largest natural park inside the city limits.  The city who voted to have this cull has yet to show us just one complaint from one person complaining about seeing deer in Cartier Park.  

I finished out a couple of hours of scouting and raking by looking at the layout of the barricades which seemed to be all in place (or ready to be put in place) by about mid-afternoon.   I couldn't help but notice that Lakeview Cemetery was totally open, probably because they decided not to cull deer there, and neither were the various inroads into the park from the cemetery.  

After attending the Pere Marquette Township's Board meeting at 4 PM and setting up an appointment with Sheriff Kim Cole (also attending) to discuss further my public extortion charges against City Attorney Ross Hammersley, I set out towards Cartier Park to do some more scouting with the aim of getting more deer out of the area and locate/neutralize any other illegal bait piles before darkness fell. 

Whenever this cull was discussed at council, it was premised that the killing would happen after darkness fell.  In the most recent discussion of timing in the Public Safety Committee meeting of October 10, 2023 it was entered into the minutes thusly:

"All shooting is done in the middle of the night" is fairly explicit when you notice that dusk begins on March 12, 2024 at 8:17 PM and dawn begins at 7:32 AM on March 13th.  Midnight to 3 AM would be the middle of the night for a three-hour cull.  It's quite dark then.  

I parked my car at a safe place a few blocks from the park and entered through the cemetery entrance off Bryant Road at around 5:45 PM.  My intention was to sweep through the park numerous times to scare off any deer that was still around and save some innocent lives of those who bring such joy to park visitors.  I had no intention of being out in the park's forest after 8 PM, or 17 minutes before dusk so as to not run afoul of the law, which our city leaders were unfortunately doing quite successfully on their own with multiple laws.  

Shortly after 7:30 I heard the humming of a motor coming up Plank Road (the decommissioned road that extends from the parking lot near the gazebo circling back to a gate on Rath Avenue), and took some cover behind trees, with my camera saying I took the following two pictures at 7:36 PM, 41 minutes before dusk.  The first didn't catch much of the ATV which is behind the large tree, but it does show that it was broad daylight out and sunny.  

The second one (zoomed in closer) shows the ATV better and had I known that the USDA sharpshooting biologist driving the vehicle was ready and willing to shoot at this point, I would have probably looked for full cover and not have taken the two pictures.  But I would soon find out that I was in an active fire zone:

Less than two minutes after I took this shot, I heard a shot nearby consistent with a suppressed rifle.  Thankfully, it wasn't aimed my way, but it made me rather nervous.  I would cautiously move north, away from the gunfire heard with the ultimate intention of getting to the pier before nightfall, where the thermal and infrared vision of the deer cullers would have my own limited vision at a major disadvantage.  And since our city officials had lied about these guys working during the middle of the night, I figured their claims about how these biologists belching bullets could distinguish between deer and humans might not be the truth either.

I had the very real possibility that I may have been between two different prongs of the cull as I heard several more shots ring out to the south of me, one while I was dashing between cover and had me hit the dirt and check for holes before realizing there was no pain.  With a lot of trepidation and some luck, I was to the point where I was overlooking the aforementioned gazebo looking down from the top of the hill to its south.  I had heard 8-10 gunshots at this point.

I waited a few more minutes to see if there was anyone downhill waiting for a shot on retreating deer, and moments before dusk, I made it to the gazebo and then to my ultimate objective, the end of the pier just beyond it.  I figured they would be less likely to mistake me for a deer when I was at a place where deer normally don't go, and would be easy prey if they did.  

I waited there and agonized about calling 911 in order to be able to get out of the area safely with a police escort, but I wound up calling instead Terry Grams, who lived nearby and was a confederate against the deer cull, running the Stop the Deer Cull website and many ads in the local paper.  In a short while, he was able to go to the end of Rath Avenue and alert the LPD officer there, Noah Noble, as to my plight and my desire to be able to vacate the area safely.  

Four more shots were fired while I was at the pier, I could hear them fairly clearly, but they all stopped around 8:30 PM.  I was 'rescued' around 8:50 or so and had heard nothing for at least 20 minutes before Noble was apprised of the situation.  I had also heard an ATV coming back from the forest but could not see it.  

As Officer Noble approached the pier with his spotlight on, I flashed my lit phone his way as I came off the pier.  Rather than ask whether I was alright from my traumatic, near-death experience, he asked immediately for my ID, even after I had thanked him and told him my name.  I started to tell him about Michigan law and of how he needs reasonable cause to suspect I have committed a crime, he has no power to request my ID. 

But then I remembered he was one of these poorly trained LPD officers, so rather than stay in a dangerous area any longer than I should, I gave him my driver's license, and he took it and put it on his clipboard, then, as if I was a common criminal, he patted me down for weapons and found only dried tart cherries in one of my pockets, and dried apples in the other, a wallet, keys and cell phone.  He had me sit in the back, as he looked up my LIEN information using my license.  This was just the first violations of my rights by the LPD after being first victimized by the city's hired biological killers.  

I was taken back to the end of Rath Avenue where I was met by LPD Captain Mike Haveman who started asking me questions about my night, and I told him a shorter version of what I have described here.  At the same time, Officer Noble was writing out a letter of trespass for me.  Being such a nice and understanding guy, the captain reduced my punishment by only trespassing me from Cartier Park for one month.  So even though the cull will not be taking place after March no matter what, I still can't set foot in Cartier Park until April 11th.  

The letter of trespass says that I disturbed the peace, but the only peace that was disturbed that night was my own, by the city's contracted killers acting well before darkness, threatening my life by acting against what the city told us all.  I was enjoying a city park in broad daylight, entering the park through a location where there was no barriers or signs alerting me to any danger.  I then had my ID taken from me and was considered guilty of a crime and given punishment without any due process.  That punishment was to keep me out of a public park that my taxes are used to pay for maintenance, upkeep, and this year, bloody murder of cute animals and near murder of a lesser-cute me.  

A copy of the notice of intent to file a federal lawsuit against the City of Ludington was delivered via email before midnight struck the end of that stressful day.  

[Willy]

You sure have been a naughty boy X. I'm assuming that by entering the park at the cemetery you missed the new sign out front. It's concerning Ludington's new theme park. It's a menacing sign if a person understands the meaning. Glad you survived. I bet City Hall is bussing about your exploits.

https://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/photo/enter-at-your-own-risk?cont...

[XLFD]

Didn't miss that sign, I was there to represent District 6 for the games-- but someone from District 1 got to the guns and ATV first so I had to bale.

[Erica]

Sorry you were treated so poorly by those sworn to protect. I mean really, you requested help through another person.
Are they only taking Bucks? Or are they slaughtering the pregnant females as well. Has it ever been stated what they are doing with the Venison from the culled deer? It should be donated 100% to the city food banks. I find this whole situation disgusting. We/humans keep destroying the deers natural habitat, it's not them encroaching on us but us encroaching on them.

[XLFD]

Thanks for your concern, Erica, and welcome to the Ludington Torch!  We appreciate your requests for information, because that's what we normally do with our public officials.

To answer your question, they are killing any deer they see.  One cannot easily distinguish between deer sexes as most bucks have shed their antlers, so pregnant does are being slaughtered wantonly.  Female deer that are more than a year old generally have twins or triplets and as you note, they carry them heavy around this time of year.  In a typical Michigan winter, deer will be moving slowly due to the cold and preserving their energy due to lack of a lot of food, so killing pregnant deer at this time is hardly sporting.  That's just one reason why most hunters who identify as sportsmen (or sportswomen) object to these massacres by federal agencies.  

As for the venison, the local food bank is exercising due caution in not accepting the meat from this cull because of fear of the environmental contamination of the deer in an area of Ludington where a lot of dangerous chemicals are still in the environmental background, and neither the city or the USDA holding this cull seem willing to test but will donate to Lansing area food banks. 

Think about that for a minute:  the USDA, an agency supposed to monitor the quality of our food, is giving untested meat rejected by our food bank to food pantries in Lansing.  Bet they don't warn them about possible taint.