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A video posted on Facebook shows a deputy fatally shooting a groundhog on a Maryland roadway.
Carroll County Sheriff's Office spokesman Cpl. Jon Light says the deputy spotted the animal in the roadway creating a traffic hazard Sunday and exited his patrol car.
The video, posted on Facebook by Justyna Olkowska, shows the deputy appearing to back away at times from the groundhog and approach it. The animal walks and then stops. The deputy backs up as the groundhog comes toward him, kneels and shoots it.
Sad little man just wanted to feel a bit more powerful, so shot a living thing for no reason.
From someone who grew up just about as rural as you can get while still having electricity, and who spent many an afternoon hunting groundhogs and other farm pests: wild groundhogs do not stand their ground when approached. They disappear so fast that you'll wonder if you really saw one. This groundhog was reacting aggressively to the officer, which is highly abnormal behavior. I don't know when this video was taken, but last year Maryland had an outbreak of rabies (which is far less common than people believe), including a groundhog at The Maryland Zoo. The officer was correct to shoot this animal if there was even the possibility of it having rabies. There was no way for him to contain the animal until Animal Control showed up, and rabies is not something to take chances with. Would you rather the groundhog got away and infected people before it died a slow, slobbering death?
In that case, can we forget that part where I confessed to hunting groundhogs? It's been more than thirty years but you know how stuff from the distant past seems to be the du jour for social justice warriors right now....
The Groundhog was acting like it wanted to get to the other side of the road.
Wanting to get to the other side is one thing. Trying to back down a human to do it, though, is another. Normal behavior for a groundhog would be to get away and hide until the danger is gone.
On reflection I can think of one situation where a healthy groundhog would be aggressive, and that would be if the deputy were between a mother and her pups. Possible, but unlikely.
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