Tuesday, August 2, 2011

No good deed goes unpunished

Girl saves woodpecker, gets pushed around by the petty officialdom of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.


Next time you get in a jam, you're on your own, pal.

5 comments:

JeffS said...

That is a classic example of a bureaucrat with too much authority and too little to do. I know the type all too well, although none of them have a badge to flash. Thank God.

SwampWoman said...

I note that the police were backing away sayin' "We had NOTHING to do with this except we were requested to accompany the F&W agent!" and the F&W folks are claiming it was a 'clerical error'. Riiiiight. Must be worried people might come to the conclusion that they have too many agents with not enough to do or something and their funding really needs to be cut.

rinardman said...

If it was such a crime against nature, why didn't the F&W undercover operative confiscate the bird, on the spot?

The reporter said to report something like this to F&W. Yeah right, like I want a hack like the agent in this story, poking around my place!

"You have a shooting range in your backyard!? Turn around, and place your hands behind you!"

*

RebeccaH said...

At least they had the grace to cancel the fine and issue an apology to the Capos. I might point out, however, that this "bureaucratic error" is typical of a government overburdened with bloated, inefficient, and far too numerous "agencies".

Anonymous said...

Example 1) Years ago, a little boy (in Burbank, California, I think) had his cigar box of bird feathers confiscated by Fish and Game, because the feathers belonged to migratory birds (crow, bluejay, mockingbird, etc).

Example 2) Some Indians (friends of mine) were traveling from northern California when they came upon a dead hawk. They emptied the ice chest of the sodas, put the hawk in, and off they went. Fish and Game was going north and saw them pick up the bird. They stopped and questioned them, opened the chest, issued a ticket, and confiscated the dead bird. They had to travel back up north, appear in court, and pay a big fine. All for a dead bird.

If you thought that was crazy, possessing eagle feathers can get you imprisoned and a hefty fine.
That is unless you are from a federally recognized tribe, which all tribes aren't, and have a permit. Canada doesn't have such stupidity.

Deborah Leigh