"CALEDONIA — The Department of Natural Resources can try to take the deer head John Longo had mounted without a permit.
"It won’t succeed.
"Unless DNR agents want to dig through the dump, Longo said, they won’t find the head.
“'At the end I said, if you (the DNR) want the deer head, I’ll throw it away or burn it,' Longo said. 'If I can’t have it, you can’t have it.'”
http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2009/07/11/local_news/doc4a592183860fe387473197.txt
The short version: Mr. Longo found a dead deer on the road, butchered it, ate it, then had the head stuffed and mounted. He didn't obtain the two DNR permits for those actions. They can't retrieve the meat, but a judge ordered Mr. Longo to turn the deer head over to the DNR. Mr. Longo says he tossed the head out.
“'If they went and picked ’em up [the dead deer] it would be one thing, but they leave ’em rot.'
"That’s what gets Longo.
“'I hate to see it go to waste,' he said. 'I was brought up right after the war. If we had potatoes and eggs and a piece of bread we were lucky ... I’m not a wasteful person.'
“'By being that way, the DNR will crucify me for it? Up their gump stump.'”
Up their gump stump, indeed, Mr. Longo. I think those four words sum up the disaffection that many Americans feel toward their government. "Up their gump stump!" could very well become the rallying cry of a new breed of patriots.
Thank you, Mr. Longo, and please continue to fight the good fight.
Gee, haven't heard that phrase in awhile. I heard it a lot growing up. I think it shows how peeved everyone is with laws that only pertain to some and wind up not serving the public as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI do understand the reason behind the permits... to keep people from using their vehicles as weapons, to track how many deer are killed, to keep the killing of wildlife more humane, etc. And the permit he needed is free.
If he disagrees with the law, then there are ways to change laws. You can't just take it in your own hands and be a vigilante without some consequence. Maybe there should be a permit for those who want to cruise the highways looking for dinner?
Hunters should be allowed to shoot deer from their cars the way God and the Constitution intended.
ReplyDeleteOrbs, that is a great battle cry! I had forgotten that phrase.
ReplyDeleteBut what is a gump stump? I Googled it and the JTI appeared on the second search page. :P
ReplyDeleteFrom Encarta Dictionary:
gump [ gump ] (past and past participle gumped, present participle gump·ing, 3rd person present singular gumps)
intransitive verb
Definition:
muddle through: to muddle through difficult situations thanks to a series of lucky chances ( slang )
[Late 20th century. < the 1994 movie Forrest Gump]
I can't get past the fact that he ate road kill......really, that is so bad. Perhaps the reason we aren't supposed to go out and collect and eat road kill just might have a tad bit to do with public health? I'm just saying......
ReplyDeleteSame goes for collecting it and mounting it. Really, I come from a long line of hunters, have hunted myself, ate plenty of game and never would touch something just found. Parasites. Bacteria? God knows what? Really, bad idea.
The State of Wisconsin use to pay people to pick up the road kills. These people would get rid of the meat and sell the hides. Another cost savings, they quit the program. Now they mark them and toss them in the ditch if they are not there already, and let nature take care of them.
ReplyDeleteAnother one, which is stupid, during rifle season all the illegally shot deer the wardens confiscated, they would give to retirement or nursing homes. Now they cannot do that either, the meat is not USDA approved! They had been doing it for years and years and years, now the meat isn’t any good, kiss my ass!
In Adams, WI I asked one of the wardens if I could have 2 or 3 of them, they had like 10 – 12 of them. He told me nope...they save them for evidence, and then bury them. The deer is kept froze all the time so the meat is good.