Our DEC is crap. Take winter flounder for example. The once most abundant fish is at near zero numbers but still a season. A clammer in the 70’s to early 80’s could dig 15+ bushel in anywhere in the bay. Today if they could dig 1, good luck. States just south over ran by wild hog. NY puts up a no kill law for wild hog (They’ll take care of it they wrote). Hope he wins millions in his lawsuit.
To be fair, P'Nut's owner Mark is not exactly the poster child for victimhood. He had been warned by DEC that keeping the squirrel was illegal, and he lied to them about having gotten rid of it while still posting on social media.
The other thing that bothers me is that the DEC was triggered by some Karen who couldn't mind her own f-ing business. Nobody levels any criticism at her. I wonder if she feels any guilt that her activism got P'Nut killed.
But having said all of that, the DEC is yet another government agency that has lost sight of it's place. The fact that it never occurred to anyone involved that six officers gearing up to SWAT a squirrel was overkill speaks volumes.
Quick story. The village where my business is located got a new mayor. I attended a town hall for business owners and he explained how he had to change the mindset of the village agencies from enforcement to service. For example, under the previous mayor they went around handing out summonses for trash on the sidewalks in front of the business. It didn't matter where it came from, or when, if litter blew in front of your establishment, you got fined. They sent me a warning about unsightly weeds in the alley next to my building. It's an industrial neighborhood. I'm sure the cars in the dealer's storage lot across the street were getting the vapors from having to look at them. I understand not wanting trash all over your community, but c'mon.
Anyway he got the building department to understand that they're there to serve the community, not punish it. There were a few business owners who spoke of their interactions prior and since and it was impressive. One wanted to add a customer entrance and the previous jerks just said no. The new department sat down with him and explained the issue with the code and suggested other options that would be compliant and helped him find a workable solution. Wow! What we pay taxes for.
I wonder how things would have looked if DEC had taken a similar approach and sat Mark down and explained to him what he needed to do to get his animal rescue operation compliant. It may not have worked, but it would have been way better for DEC to be able to say "Here's how we tried to help, but this guy refused to follow the rules and we were left with no choice."
There's two significant problems with most of these agencies.
One: They end up getting run by zealots who think they're saving the world, or they're run by political appointees that aren't competent and end up pandering to the wrong interests.
B: They see bad actors and start to develop the us vs. them mindset. Where they're the hammer and everyone else is a nail.
Hopefully the backlash was a wakeup call for them.
Probably not.
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www.weny.com
, this particular crackpot was actually following the rules and yet DEC is still bent on the enforcement hammer.
