The Next Biggest Lie About the Deer Cull

[XLFD]

In The Biggest Lie Behind the Ludington Deer Cull, we revealed that the deer cull, which was primarily held in Cartier Park, actually had no reason to be held in that venue.  There was never any complaint or damage documented at Cartier Park since the beginning of 2022, when the cull was first introduced as a way to manage deer in areas with high numbers of complaints and damage.  Why was it held in Cartier Park when park and campground users are almost unanimous in their opinion that seeing deer there is a good thing?  City leaders have told us nothing since, keeping to their tired lie that there were high numbers of complaints and damage in the area. 

One criticism I received on our Facebook entity, The Ludington Pitchfork, was from a Forest Hills resident who wondered why I was only focusing on Cartier Park and not other places where the cull was held.  The problem was that the one other place that had deer cull activities on it was private property, about 3 acres in the Fourth Ward, property owned by Erik Taylor (who lives elsewhere in Ludington).  

We have talked about this property before in relation to the owner giving the approval for holding the cull on the property and then receiving one heck of a tax break deal from city hall the month after.  This would be an incredible scandal in other cities, but not here. Taylor gave approval and now he stands a lot better chance of succeeding in getting the property developed.  

Nothing to see here, says the city, but let's remember what is on the top of the contract with the USDA and what is stated in the council ordinance for this three-year contract:  the cull will take places only in areas of the city with high amounts of complaints and damage from deer.  

The Depot doesn't have a public campground on it or is the public normally allowed thereon, but you will notice that several inhabited buildings are within 100 feet of the property (see the white lines in the map above).  State law says that people cannot hunt within 450 feet of a building that is inhabitable without the expressed permission of the owner.  This is obviously to ensure safety, but there is no indication that those building owners were asked for their approval, nor was Dowland or Staffon Streets blocked off for this cull.  

What happened with the cull, according to eyewitnesses at the March 19 cull, is that a "cull expert" (as yet unidentified, the city breaking FOIA law to withhold that information from the public) parked on the south side of Dowland Street at about the NW corner of the property and shot his rifle through his truck window.  We were told this was to be done safely: 

To my knowledge, all neighbors within the danger zone of that property were not for this cull, and Erik Taylor, many city blocks away in the comfort of his own home, was definitely feeling safe and well-provided for by dint of selling out his neighbors to the city and their royal hunt.

In order to prove my hypotheses, I sent a similar FOIA request to the city asking for four different types of records:

"1) documented complaints from property owner Erik Taylor or any of his neighbors around the "Depot property" involving deer activity or presence on Erik Taylor's property filed since January 2022.

2) any documented environmental/ecological damage believed to have been caused by the deer and their activities on that Depot property,

3) incident reports of any car/deer accidents happening on the 700 block of East Dowland, and

4) any documented complaints or letters of support from that neighborhood in regard to deer cull activities happening in their vicinity."

Except for the dates, this turned out to be the same response I got from the other request:

Here we go again, there has been no complaints about deer in that area, there have been no complaints about ecological/environmental damage in the area, there have been no car/deer accidents in the area.  The only surprising things is that there were no complaints about the cull activities in the area, because I would be rattled if I saw a federal agent parking in my neighborhood and taking shots from his truck.  

To our Forest Hills friend:  like Cartier Park, there were no complaints involving deer at the Depot property, no environmental damage at all in the record.  In summation of the deer cull, the cull took place in two areas that did not have any documented complaints or damage caused by deer.  The whole affair was a very dangerous and costly lie. 

[Willy]

Thanks for the report X. The longer this cull idea is kept alive by the City the greater the stink that comes off it. These people could teach the Biden family a thing or two about corruption.

[XLFD]

There's a lot to go through, I've barely scratched the surface on how much folly this was.  The one good thing it has done is energize me, Terry Grams, and many other citizens who have had enough of their tax dollars be wasted on crap like this.  Terry is motivated enough to go after this practice statewide, if not nationwide as the charlatans at the USDA do this all over and market is as something it ain't.

[stump]

  Now that the deer cull is over for this year. How many documented Deer were eliminated from within the City Limits ? Did anyone verify the number ? and this cost us taxpayers how much per Deer?

[XLFD]

The official numbers are 26 from March 12th (21 from Cartier, 5 from Depot) and 7 from March 19th (no site breakdown) for a total of 33.  I will be doing an article on deer cull math shortly.  The final cost is still unclear, as there will be some refund supposedly since they only culled two nights instead of 4.