Natural Born Killers: The latest secret government mission in Washington, D.C.
In the dead of night, snipers from a highly-trained SWAT force ride in the bed of a pickup truck scanning for deer with heat-sensing and night-vision scopes equipment that came from a major Army training base. They once recorded 44 confirmed kills in a night. One particularly talented marksman was eventually recruited by the CIA. Once the deer are 'downed', the carcasses are tested for disease and butchered into cuts of venison. The meat is donated to the DC Central Kitchen and often cooked into Bolognese or chili.
ANDREW DUEHREN: For more than a decade, the U.S. government has been waging a secretive campaign against restive local insurgents, deploying a team of highly-trained specialists with license to kill. The location: a marquee park in the U.S. capital. The target: white-tailed deer.
The rapidly multiplying deer are gobbling up the native vegetation in Rock Creek Park, a onetime stomping ground for Teddy Roosevelt that spans much of the city’s northwest. For U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters, who strike at night using silenced weapons, the mission is to control the population and protect young plants from too many hungry deer… The animals thrive in environments where human development—and gardens—abut forested areas, and as the human population in the Washington area grew, so too did the deer…
But like some U.S. interventions overseas, the effort has had mixed results. Local reaction is less than fawning, while the effect of the culling program on vegetation is still subject to study…
Earl Hodnett helped establish the deer-management program in Fairfax County, in D.C’s suburbs. Snipers from the county police’s SWAT force… ride in the bed of a pickup truck as Hodnett slowly trawled through a county park, scanning for deer with heat-sensing equipment. They once recorded 44 confirmed kills in a night.
The gunmen benefited from working in the heart of America’s military-industrial complex. Some equipment, including night-vision scopes, came from Fort Belvoir, a major Army base, and Quantico, where Marines train. One particularly talented marksman was eventually recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Hodnett…
Nick Bartolomeo, the park’s resources, lands and planning manager, and a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department declined to answer many specific questions about how the federal government zaps deer in Washington’s signature public park, created by Congress in 1890. The National Park Service provides general public information about the operations. Bartolomeo said officials form a perimeter around the hunts, which happen between November and the end of March every year, to keep civilians away.
But too much public information, Bartolomeo said, could compromise the mission. “We don’t want to be doing the operation and have a member of the public pop up,” he said. A spokesperson for USDA said hunts are called off if staff spot a member of the public…
Carol Grunewald, a 68-year-old who lives near Rock Creek Park, is horrified by roaming federal agents assassinating Bambi. In the program’s first few years, Grunewald and other concerned neighbors would circle at night, searching for signs of the operations. They staged protests nearby, holding signs such as “Don’t Kill Our Deer.”
Grunewald, a former animal advocate with the Humane Society, sued the federal government in 2012 to block the deer culls, briefly delaying the start of the program before a judge ruled in favor of the Park Service. “We see them as valued members of the earth,” she said. “They need to be valued and not treated like grass that you mow down every week.”
Grunewald and others have called for the U.S. to use nonlethal methods to control the deer population, such as contraception. It’s an option the NPS says isn’t yet feasible. (It would involve injecting the females with drugs, which is difficult, though probably easier than training the males to use condoms.)
When NPS asked for public comment on its plans to shoot deer in other parks in Washington, some suggested the U.S. bring back wolves and other deer-eaters. What could go wrong? Well, reintroducing apex predators would also endanger children and pets, the NPS replied, ruling it out…
Once the deer are downed, the carcasses are tested for disease and then butchered into cuts of venison. NPS donates the meat to DC Central Kitchen, which cooks it into meals that are distributed to community-service organizations. The group has received 21,000 pounds of deer meat since 2013, including the most recent donation of 3,000 pounds, said Amy Bachman, the organization’s director of procurement and sustainability. SOURCE…
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