Letter to the Editor: Anthony DeNicola

One of Mt Lebanon’s “suitors” for a future deer cull is Anthony DeNicola, who heads up White Buffalo, a sharpshooting firm. DeNicola and his company purport to “conserve native species and ecosystems.” While the company has recognized the business potential of non-lethal methods such as sterilization (it has been hired to perform tranquilization of deer for surgery on several projects), most of its business is in sharpshooting, a lucrative affair these days in suburban America. In fact, DeNicola has likened deer management to mowing lawns, in that it requires regular maintenance (i.e. repeated high-dollar contracts guaranteed over the long-term). Quick to point out his Doctorate in Wildlife Ecology, DeNicola nevertheless fails to encourage the real long-term improvements that could be brought by landscape modifications and attractant removal.

White Buffalo has come into conflict with members of the public on several occasions when hired by municipalities to implement deer culls. Most notoriously, it settled with animal protection group SHARK for a total of $17,500 after illegally destroying evidence the group had taken of White Buffalo and park rangers killing deer inhumanely (placing plastic bags over the heads of struggling injured animals) and damaging camera equipment.

The incident occurred in 2004. In response to an unpopular cull of semi-tame deer in Ohio’s Metro Parks system, SHARK had set up a number of surveillance cameras. One week into the cull, one of the cameras was found by park rangers, leading to a frantic search and the eventual discovery of SHARK’s other cameras. These were placed in an evidence locker. However, instead of being left there, DeNicola was able to access the locker, deleted the video evidence of his firm’s activity and damaged the cameras. This action should constitute Evidence Tampering, a felony under OH state law, but DeNicola escaped charges in a clumsy cover-up by park rangers.

Unfortunately for White Buffalo and the park rangers, SHARK already had one week’s worth of footage under its belt, which was more than enough to show the public what its “humane” methods consist in.

Here’s the kind of video DeNicola and officials were willing to break the law to prevent the public from seeing. DeNicola subsequently claimed these deer are in their death throes. Judge for yourself:
http://www.cleveland.com/solonsun/news/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1229611088109080.xml&coll=4

Here’s a veterinarian’s opinion (from: http://www.sharkonline.org/index.php/akroncruelty-com):
Hi, my name is Dr. Bennett Fagin, and I'm a veterinarian, a licensed veterinarian in the state of Ohio. 


I've been a veterinarian for 22 years. I’ve just finished watching video footage of a deer kill in the Summit Metro Park, and I've watched the footage from before the deer was shot until the deer was dragged off of the field and in my professional opinion; the deer was not killed with the first shot. The first shot was the only shot, and I do not understand why an additional shot wasn't rendered after the deer was shot the first time.

A bag was placed over its head, and the deer actually struggled more after the bag was placed over its head than it was after it was shot. I realize that muscle contractions occur for minutes following a fatal shot, but what I visualized was more than muscle contractions or fasciculation.

The animal actually thrashed when its leg was grabbed and in my professional opinion, the manner in which this animal was shot is inhumane. I think the animal should have been shot again, and someone at close range should have placed a shot either in its head or through its heart and humanely killed it.

Thank you.”

For a full report on this incident: www.metroparkscorruption.com

Video report:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NszxW3g8xRU

Then there is Belinda Geiger…
Geiger was a resident of Solon, OH, in 2006 when White Buffalo came into town to conduct a deer cull. She was arrested after DeNicola complained that she was stalking him. Those charges were dismissed in court in 2007.

Geiger then sued, claiming that the City of Solon and White Buffalo conspired unlawfully to silence her right to free speech. The City scrambled to transfer the blame to White Buffalo, filing a cross claim making White Buffalo responsible for any violation of Geiger’s rights. A City attorney stated at the time “It’s our position that if anything was done inappropriately, it was DeNicola.” Geiger was ultimately awarded a settlement of $25,000, half paid by the City of Solon and half by White Buffalo.

So this is the “expert” sharpshooter Mt Lebanon is considering bringing into a community that is already bitterly divided over the issue of deer culling? Someone who has been shown to be unscrupulous in his actions and who apparently has a poor mastery of citizens’ constitutional rights. DeNicola has already announced his own “estimate” of deer numbers in Mt Lebanon to conveniently support his claim that sharpshooting is required before sterilization can be effective. This estimate was apparently produced without the backing of any scientific method whatsoever. In other words, here we have a situation where an “expert” is analyzing deer numbers and recommending lethal action… an expert who will subsequently bid for the contract in question. Sound familiar, Mt Lebanon?

What’s more, Mt Lebanon isn’t the first potential White Buffalo customer to have DeNicola serve as both “Pro-Kill” Expert and Executioner. The same claims have been made by opponents of deer culls in Vassar and Cayuga, to name but two.

Is this who you want your tax dollars to go to?

What a shame the public won’t get the chance to question Tony DeNicola at Monday’s public meeting…