WTF, part whatever
Our police are generally pretty nice, for police. I mean, they're police, but they aren't the armor-clad idiots one finds in cities.
They did a totally screwed-up and IMO criminally wasteful thing yesterday.
Three bulls were wandering around a neighborhood near [Person's Name] Ranch Road. The bulls were grazing in a park and drinking from a water feature, to be specific. Our brilliant PD decided that they were a threat to public safety and shot one. The others, being sensible animals, ran from the gunfire.
Why PD couldn't use their four-wheel drive trucks, their quads, or their drone to herd the cattle back towards the ranch is not clear to me. It isn't clear to a lot of annoyed townspeople, either.
PD called the Streets Department to deal with the dead bull. Engineering Technician arrived with a front loader, scooped up the bull, and dumped it on the far side of the detention basins at the wastewater plant where it stayed over night.
Equipment Operator and I both wailed at the waste. Had anyone called me, I would have told him to loop a chain around the bull's hindquarters and dangle it from the front loader. I could have field-dressed it, packed it in ice and had it at a butcher this morning. Instead, almost a half-ton of beef is buried in the desert outside the wastewater plant. The community food bank could have used it. I could have stuffed my freezer and the freezers of everyone I know. The Streets Department could have a steaks, chops, and rib roast for lunch for a year.
More to the point, the bull could be grazing on the open range that surrounds the town. Open range. The cattle are allowed -supposed- to be there. If the town (or a neighborhood) doesn't want cattle wandering in, it is their responsibility to install fences and cattle guards. The rancher has no duty to contain the cattle. The town (or any property owner) has no right to molest, steal, or kill the livestock. That's called "rustling" and is a felony.
Abject stupidity. Unforgivable waste.
They did a totally screwed-up and IMO criminally wasteful thing yesterday.
Three bulls were wandering around a neighborhood near [Person's Name] Ranch Road. The bulls were grazing in a park and drinking from a water feature, to be specific. Our brilliant PD decided that they were a threat to public safety and shot one. The others, being sensible animals, ran from the gunfire.
Why PD couldn't use their four-wheel drive trucks, their quads, or their drone to herd the cattle back towards the ranch is not clear to me. It isn't clear to a lot of annoyed townspeople, either.
PD called the Streets Department to deal with the dead bull. Engineering Technician arrived with a front loader, scooped up the bull, and dumped it on the far side of the detention basins at the wastewater plant where it stayed over night.
Equipment Operator and I both wailed at the waste. Had anyone called me, I would have told him to loop a chain around the bull's hindquarters and dangle it from the front loader. I could have field-dressed it, packed it in ice and had it at a butcher this morning. Instead, almost a half-ton of beef is buried in the desert outside the wastewater plant. The community food bank could have used it. I could have stuffed my freezer and the freezers of everyone I know. The Streets Department could have a steaks, chops, and rib roast for lunch for a year.
More to the point, the bull could be grazing on the open range that surrounds the town. Open range. The cattle are allowed -supposed- to be there. If the town (or a neighborhood) doesn't want cattle wandering in, it is their responsibility to install fences and cattle guards. The rancher has no duty to contain the cattle. The town (or any property owner) has no right to molest, steal, or kill the livestock. That's called "rustling" and is a felony.
Abject stupidity. Unforgivable waste.