The charlatan got us again UPDATED

Through a Right To Know, the White Buffalo (Tony DeNicola) archery program details were made public.

Tony DeNicola will be charging $9000 for supervising THREE days of archery. Here is the breakdown:

Hunting Organization and Management Budget 2016-17

WHITE BUFFALO, INC.  EXPENSES 

PERSONNEL

Program management 3 person-days X $1,500/day       $4500

DIRECT COSTS

Supplies (Miscellaneous supplies)                                  $4500

TOTAL                                                                           $9000

What miscellaneous supplies could possibly cost $4500? It can't be bait. It is illegal to hunt over bait. Plastic bags?

Here are the records received:

Deer Management Authorization Letter for Archery Year 2

Deer Management Agreement Year 2 Archery Proposal in Appendix A is missing. Appendix B pertains to the donation issue, at my expense. The way I read it, Shady Lane can't receive those tender fawns given to him again this year. That would be compensation, Greg.

RFP for Archery Year 2

Last year, there were more specifics; expectations. No minimum or maximum amount of deer killed this time. Why? Because he won't kill many. Remember, he got "the dumbest of the dumb deer last year." Tony's costs are not broken down. Are we paying for the tags? How many tags are we buying? Are we paying meat processing fees? Do we know about Twin Hills? Are food and lodging included? Mileage? 

That is the worst contract I have seen in a long time. It might make for good conversation tomorrow morning. "Chat with Lebo manager Keith MicGill* over coffee tomorrow, 8-10 am, at Panera in the Galleria. Stop for a minute or stay the whole time."

*Way to go, Susan. You can't even spell your boss' name correctly in the LeboAlert.

Update August 20, 2016 7:43 AM We can't get any answers to the questions above. Keith McGill provided the following breakdown of costs.

Thank you for you continued interest in the program. Miscellaneous supplies would cover items such as the bags to place the entrails in when the deer are field dressed, production and printing of the various forms such as the authorization forms that are required to be signed, hunting arrows and I am sure there are other items in addition to the ones I have listed that are required to allow the volunteer archers to provide this service to the municipality.

This is similar to other volunteer efforts that occur in the municipality such as Earth Day in which residents volunteer their time to clean up different areas of the community. For that particular event the municipality provides trash bags, gloves and safety vests to residents who will be working in areas that are proximate to traffic. Another example would be the numerous Eagle Scout projects that have been done throughout the community. The municipality provides the materials once the projects are approved and the scout(s) and other volunteers provide the labor to actually complete the project. 

Keith

and

Good afternoon, 

There is no breakdown for the miscellaneous supplies. None is required in the contract that was reviewed and approved. As I indicated in my prior email I am sure the are other items include in this item of which I am not aware. I believe the cost to be fair and reasonable. 

Keith

and finally

This is a professional services contract not a time and materials contract. The cost for the program will be $9000. 

Keith

How does this guy get off call himself a 501(c)(3)?

Here is DeNicola's and Maddock's proposal

Someone sent me a copy of the June 30 proposal made by Anthony DeNicola and Jody Maddock.

The deer estimates are all over the place. I knew Wildlife Services was back in the picture. They were looking at my blog. USDA Wildlife Services were the killers from 2006-2008. I have an accident report about those clowns on my website, lebocitizens.com. They weren't drug tested, couldn't cite the safety rules, and were known to shoot themselves in the foot or through the floorboard of their trucks.

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…

Our commissioners want to do business with these people?

On Tuesday, White Buffalo is scheduled to speak at the Commission Discussion Session. You might recall that the commissioners were going to have a conference call with "Tony" DiNicola at the last commission discussion session, but that phone call never took place. There was no cellular service thirty miles off the coast of Virginia. In my opinion, that was a blessing.

What I am about to share with you is the kind of work White Buffalo does. If the deer does not die from one shot, they suffocate it by placing a plastic bag over the deer's head. Starting in 2004, White Buffalo was hired to cull deer in the Akron, Ohio area. I have not watched (and never will) the video that is linked to this web page. http://www.sharkonline.org/index.php/akroncruelty-com

The following article appeared in The Blade, a Toledo newspaper, five plus years later http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2009/11/15/Favored-firm-for-deer-cull-accused-of-cruel-methods.html

In another lawsuit, a woman from Solon, Ohio sued White Buffalo, the city of Solon, and Anthony DiNicola and won. http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/metro/news/stevepokin/pokin-around-if-deer-kill-protestors-cause-delay-the-city/article_23694fc8-836f-5f0d-81ff-4a76f938fa38.html

At the time, Geiger was what you would call an activist. Solon's public works director described her in a different way in a memo he wrote that found its way into the court file. He called her and others "nut cases."

I guess that is what I would be called. Nut case.

Has White Buffalo ever worked in a confined space like Mt. Lebanon? Do three of our adjoining lots total five acres or more?

Traci Cardenas, a leader of the Town and Country protest, says her concern is safety. The city has used White Buffalo in the past and required that sharpshooters work on land that is at least 10 contiguous acres. That has now been lowered to five acres, meaning three adjoining property owners with a total of five acres can OK a sharpshooter.

This is an accident waiting to happen. Why subject our residents and our deer to such inhumane activities? Why can't we just do sterilization?  It is safer. It is less controversial. There is grant money available. It is a no-brainer.

A topic that takes everything out of me UPDATED 3X

Last night, the first topic on the agenda for the Discussion Session was deer.  A conference call with White Buffalo's wildlife biologist, Anthony DeNicola was scheduled. Unfortunately, that call did not take place since "Tony" was on an island thirty miles off of Virginia and could not get a signal from the cell phone that was flown to him. He did send a report to the commission which Tom Kelley shared at the meeting.

Since this is my blog, I will point out what I believe are his most significant findings. Mt. Lebanon can biologically support many more deer. Socially, it is up to the community what it will support. I liked how Tom Kelley made the point of saying "dead deer" reports vs. Kristen's "deer incident" report, which included sightings of deer in yards.

To reduce the deer population, it would be in two phases:

• Phase 1 Reduce the population through culling and sterilization
• Phase 2 Reduce the population through culling and sterilization

Their cost for sterilization would be $1000 per deer. Cost for culling would be between $200 to $400 plus a $75 processing fee per deer. Sterilization would be more cost effective in the long run since unsterilized deer could produce 2-3 fawns per year.

Kristen reported that Tony felt that there were many more deer than what the aerial survey showed. I am not sure how that is.

Matt Kluck said that the report shows in black and white that Mt. Lebanon could support many more deer.

Kelly Fraasch asked when the commission could have a conference call with Maryland. http://www.deerfriendly.com/deer-population-control Maryland has had a successful nonlethal program using surgical sterilization.

Dave Brumfield prefers sterilization because it is safer. I would think Kristen would too, since she felt that dogs on leashes in Williamsburg was unsafe.

I have uploaded the podcast from last night's discussion session. It is available here. The podcast begins with deer.

Update September 24, 2013 11:42 PM Please click on the link I have provided in the blog post. Scroll down a bit and you will see Kelly's four page document on "Deer in Mt. Lebanon." It is linked to my Google Docs.

Mt. Lebanon hiring firm to count deer February 7, 2013 Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh Post Gazette
... [Commisioner] Mrs. Fraasch has composed and posted online a four-page document, "Deer in Mt. Lebanon [PDF]," ... she expresses her opposition to hunting by rifle or bow, instead favoring sterilization by removal of does' ovaries as a viable option. She cites a significant cost savings over the long term and mitigation of some hazards associated with culling...

Update September 24, 2013 1:33 PM Here is a copy of the White Tailed Deer Population Control Options presented by Tom Kelley at last night's meeting.

Update September 26, 2013 9:15 AM Speaking of Bibles (see 10:43 PM), there is this.