I don’t want to encroach on Steyn’s beat, but apparently this story about a man attacking raccoons invading his garden made the front page of the Toronto Star the other day, suggesting that maybe things really are better up North if this is what counts as front page news. The man, who was trying to protect his garden, took a shovel to some raccoons, specifically a baby forest bandit. The critter was injured, but don’t worry it’s getting the finest health care Canada can afford. Of course, I’m a sucker for animals so I wouldn’t do this. But I also wouldn’t press criminal charges against a raccoon-killer either. I understand the animal cruelty charge against Dong Nguyen, even if I think it’s silly. But the Canadian authorities are also charging him with “possessing a dangerous weapon.” A shovel. A garden shovel. Apparently that counts as a dangerous weapon.
Here’s something to think about. If Mr. Nguyen had a gun, he could kill raccoons far less cruelly than employing multiple swats with a shovel. But no. Instead, he uses a shovel and that is now a dangerous weapon. If we criminalize shovels, only criminals will have them.
There once was a gardener this June
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWho with a shovel, whacked a pesky raccoon
"It's the law," a judge will affirm
As he hands down a prison term
"In Canada, we don't behave like Daniel Boone."
Commadians at it again!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWere it not so tragic, this would be hilarious.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseStories like this support Derb's position. That is, we are doomed.
“The law states you are not allowed to take them more than a kilometre from where they are trapped and, obviously, you can’t kill them,” said Iris Roth, co-owner of Delta Pest Control Inc., a family-owned Toronto area firm that’s been in the business since 1959.
How can this massive load of nonsense be rolled back? I don't see how it is possible. There are no examples of a society rolling back socialism and the psychosis that supports it.
The question is not really when the collapse happens. The real debate is whether or not it is best to expedite it. The sooner the whole thing goes bust, the sooner we rebuild.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is why holding the line on guns, marriage and so much else is important. I am sure that no so long ago if someone in Canada has been charged criminally for a having a shovel the charged would have been laughed out of court. I am sure there was a day in Canada when killing vermin, even cute vermin, was not a criminal act either. However since liberals have held power in Canada for so long shovels are now "dangerous", vermin must now be housed in guest quarters while eating your garden up and you get arrested for taking fish off of your own field. The captcha was "good night" and that is how I will end this post...Good night!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThen there's the "sovereign citizen" in Florida who shot up a fish store because they ran out of crawfish. Check it out:
External Link
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHow is it that any other mammal, should it be so inclined, can kill a raccoon without fear of prosecution?
Perhaps he should argue his case from an animal rights perspective? HIS rights as an animal protecting a source of food?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCan anyone get proof that the judge or prosecutors involved in this own a shovel of their own? If the charge is mere possession, it seems terribly wrong to leave these dangerous miscreants free on the streets of Toronto.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCan anyone get proof that the judge or prosecutors involved in this own a shovel of their own? If the charge is mere possession, it seems terribly wrong to leave these dangerous miscreants free on the streets of Toronto.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse'But the Canadian authorities are also charging him with “possessing a dangerous weapon.” A shovel. A garden shovel. Apparently that counts as a dangerous weapon.'
Jonah, have you SEEN what you can do to someone with a garden shovel? How is it NOT a dangerous weapon?
Other weapons that should be banned: pitchforks, rakes, all kinds of saws, lawnmowers, and hedge clippers. Hammers, screwdrivers, and kitchen knives should also be on the list.
When the zombie apocalypse comes, Canada is completely hosed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUmmm, okay....
Canadian Golf: Banned since golf clubs can be "dangerous weapons."
Canadian Baseball: Banned since baseball bats and even baseballs can be "dangerous weapons."
Canadian Hockey: *Horrors!* Banned since hockey sticks and pucks can be "dangerous weapons."
Canadian Football: Banned since footballs, helmets, and shoe cleats can be "dangerous weapons."
Have I missed anything? ;)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRadley Balko had this bit about a Quebec farmer who got in trouble for killing carp that invaded his fields during a flood. Carp are not even a native fish, but never mind, officials said he had to carefully transport each one to a pool of water. External Link
Insanity!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNext step: mandatory "shovel safety" training and then then the licensing and registration of all shovels in Canada.
God save the Queen, indeed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is an example of excessive legal intrusiveness, but it is also an example of a dumbhead. This kind of thing happens all over the U.S. It is everywhere. My own backyard has been torn up repeatedly by raccoons. And one of my first emotional responses would be to do things similar to Mr. Nguyen. But you talk to neighbors, you talk to the animal shelter, you find ways to deal with the problem that don't risk prosecution. What Mr. Nguyen did would not stop the problem anyway. More raccoons will come, usually at night, so that he has virtually no chance of stopping them. Attacking them with a shovel is not an effective long-term fix.
Conservatives absolutely care about animal cruelty and the one thing we need to agree on is that you find ways to deal with problems like this that don't involve government prosecution. That is the wrong path to travel.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen humans replicate wildly and without control, we end up invading the wild places that have maintained a wonderful balance of life.
Instead, we seek to destroy what we cannot, or do not, wish to control.
Disgusting. Arrest him and take his shovel away from him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBecause we "cannot, or do not, wish to control" Mr. Nguyen?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen humans replicate wildly and without control, we end up invading the wild places that have maintained a wonderful balance of life.
And, of course, when multi-cellular organisms reproduced "wildly and without control" they ended up "invading the wild places" that had various bacteria that had "maintained a wonderful balance of life" and death.
Instead, we seek to destroy what we cannot, or do not, wish to control.
And so those organisms developed an immune system that systematically seeks out any foreign organisms within it and when they can't be relegated to certain areas, like the gut or skin, and controlled they are systematically destroyed.
Clearly, no multi-cellular organisms with an immune system that wages such a senseless and terrible war of destruction have any moral right to exist.
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?
No word on possible prosecution for catnapping, yet.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf they think using a shovel to injure a raccoon is bad, they would be appalled when I use chemical weapons to massacre thousands of helpless little fire ants. If they don't prosecute such arthropod genocide, it can only be due to the fact that Canadians are a bunch of racists who support apartheid against invertebrates.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Obviously you can't kill them."
How is this obvious? It's a raccoon!
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