Heart wrenching apology

I am cross posting a comment from Bait.  It is a heart wrenching apology from one of Merlin Benner's former employees. 

Hello all, sorry to hear your deer. My position has just been terminated at Wildlife Specialists so I thought I could inform you of the absolute debacle and sickening display of so called professionalism from this company. I was apart of the job that only took 6 deer from your township. I would like to officially apologize to all residents whether you were for it or against it. What I was apart of will haunt me forever. I do hunt legally and feed my family by doing so but what WS did in your township was horrific and an absolute display of arrogance and should not represent real hunters. I witnessed 5/6 deer taken that year. I never once did any of the shooting bc I was against using a weapon I had no practice with. The so called "professional shooters" were definitely not trained nor professional. They are basically your average hunter with big heads and chips on their shoulders. On the very first night there were 11 shots fired for 3 deer in those stupid corrals. That was the most horrific thing I've ever witnessed in all my life. The first 3 shots were fired while Benner's little brother was literally saying "I can't see" and fired anyway. There should have been a law suit filed against that BS of a company. Only one deer was shot somewhat humanely where it only took one bullet but all the rest had to be shot twice or more. The memories will haunt me for the rest of my life and those responsible are not professional nor do they feel like they did anything wrong. I spoke up many times about it and have since spoke up about it and that is one reason I was terminated. It's a sad world we live in. Good luck Mt. Lebo, I feel for you and your deer. Again, I'm sorry for ever being apart of that and if I regret anything in life, it was working for that P.O.S. company.

Of course it was Kip's UPDATED

A Right To Know was filed on March 16, 2015 asking for "All emails, text messages and written communication between any Mt. Lebanon employee and any employee of Wildlife Specialists for the period between February 15 - March 11, 2015 regarding the deer management program currently being conducted in Mt. Lebanon."

The RTK was partially granted and partially denied and sent in two files. Steve Feller's cover letter includes an explanation.

Highlights from the redacted Right To Know file include:

• Wildlife Specialists mapped out 1,000' buffers from school buildings instead of measuring from property line of schools. Only one school needed to be adjusted. This bait site was the one vandalized. Page 18.
• "This new issue about the school SAFE act is all empty because the act states that all "unauthorized" individuals may not possess a fire arm within a school safe zone. If you are licensed by the state or the local authority to do so then you are authorized. Why is this not clearly obvious to the commissioners and Police Department? Otherwise, the police would not be allowed to come near a school." - W.S.
• Per John Bendel's suggestion, Steve Feller was feeding Merlin Benner questions that were going to be asked at the Discussion Session. Page 19.
• Page 21. Concordia was upset with Brian Benner concerning use of their property. Concordia did not grant permission to cull the deer on their property.
• Page 25. Feller notified W.S. that the sites previously chosen at Markham, the golf course, and McNeilly are all within the 1,000' buffer.
• Page 28. A female lawyer warned W.S. if they did not call PA One Call by 11 AM that day, that she would call and report them. Merlin suggested that they make the call. This woman spoke with our police chief who did not understand that bullets are considered explosives.
• Page 30. Merlin Benner threatens a resident with harassment.
• Merlin tells Coleman that they will comply and limit work on site to the two approved by the PA Game Commission. See letter from the Game Commission. Page 33.
• W.S. blamed Kelly Fraasch for sharing Kip's information on page 38. W.S. said that Kip and his wife were very worried about their safety and for the business.
• Page 39. More "harassment" from a Mt. Lebanon resident toward Kip.
• Page 41. Kip had been identified in one of the "activist blogs."
• Amendments to the application begin on page 54 to include adding more men to the permit, allowing semi-automatic rifles, and use of a Scott Township property owned by Mt. Lebanon (Twin Hills).
• Page 61. Since McNeilly is off the table, W.S. wants to use Williamsburg and Main Park. W.S. also tells Feller that they have written permission from Concordia.
• Page 65. Facebook announcement of the February 28 protest on Connor Road.

Highlights from the other RTK file include:

• Brian Benner says that hopefully all shooting will be under the cover of darkness. Page 6.
• A fourth name was not on the amendment request. Game Commission said that a new request must be submitted with all four names listed. Page 9.
• Coleman reports to Benner about debating with a citizen on page 16. See photo here. 
  
  Baiting begins. Benner heard that one of his co-workers saw a feeder photo in an article and was concerned that they were trespassing. He realized that the photo could have been taken from a distance. What a squirrelly bunch!

• Page 17. No feeders at Twin Hills.
• Page 27. McNeilly was doused with urine. How do they know?
• Pages 30 - 45. PA One Call reports.
• Gene wanted to know how or why information was disclosed about shooting. Aaron Lauth told him that Merlin Benner shared it with a Trib reporter. Page 46. Squirrelly!
• Page 47. First Church of Christ did not want their lot used for parking or access for deer killing. W.S. had called the police on members of the public who tried to tell them that they did not have permission to be there!
• Deer were captured and killed without incident. They were pleased that there was no protester interference. Page 48.
• Wildlife Specialists wanted to use cross-bows at McNeilly, Bird, and the Golf Course since it would not violate the 1,000' federal school law. Thankfully, Steve Feller said thanks, but no thanks. Page 50.
• Page 51. More on PA One Call.
• Page 55. Coordinates of "Trapping Sites."
• The Health Department called and had not approved any wild game processors for food banks. Page 64.
• Page 65. Request to use lawful firearms for big game was denied.

Another RTK is due on or before May 5. Now that my heart is racing again and am all fired up remembering all the unrest the deer killing had caused, I want to remind everyone that the municipality is bringing in Sandy Baker this weekend, to share her recommendations for non-lethal methods of deer management. 

Update April 24, 2015 3:05 PM The final report from Wildlife Specialists has been posted here. Six deer were processed at Kip's Deer Processing yielding 183 pounds of venison all donated to "Link in the Chain Ministries."

Update April 25, 2015 9:20 AM I did a quick calculation and figured that the meat came to $81.97 per pound of venison. ($12,000 for the deer management plan + 6 deer at a cost of $500/deer.)

Commission considers additional private property locations UPDATED

According to the Commission Discussion Session Agenda for tomorrow, February 23, 2015, our commissioners will be considering additional private property locations for deer killing. Brian Benner from Wildlife Services [sic] and staff will be reviewing plans with the commissioners. Brian Benner is one of two people from Wildlife Specialists, LLC permitted to do the field work as listed in the PA Game Commission permit.

For all the Lebo Citizens readers who are new to this, the Discussion Session will start at 6:30 PM in Conference Room C, down the hall from the Commission Chambers in the Municipal Building. The public is permitted to observe, but not speak.

The Commission Meeting will begin at 8:00 PM in the Commission Chambers. Citizen Comments begins shortly after 8:00 PM. The agenda is rather short, so if the commission permits non-residents to speak at the end of the meeting, the wait will not be as long as the last meeting. It appears that Commissioners Linfante and Bendel will not be attending. Those who wish to speak, must add their names to the sign up sheets in the back of the room. Last time, there were two sign up sheets, one for residents and one for non-residents.

Also on the Commission Meeting Agenda, the commissioners will be awarding a contract to Diversified Municipal Services to represent the municipality in defending and appealing assessments, otherwise known as the Newcomers Tax. Mr. and Mrs. Stroyd Morgans, get your phones charged. It will be a night for photos.

Update February 22, 2015 3:21 PM The commission lied to us about the sterilization permit. The Game Commission stated that they have not denied the sterilization permit, but are still waiting for Mt. Lebanon's response to their six questions.

On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 12:23 PM, a resident wrote:

Hello Steve,

To date I have not received a response to my inquiry surrounding the deer sterilization permit.

Considering the Mt. Lebanon Commissioners initially misled the public to believe this permit was not approved by the PA Game Commission, I would like to know its true current status.

Please respond as soon as possible.

Thank you.

From: Stephen Feller <sfeller@mtlebanon.org>
Date: February 20, 2015, 1:14:16 PM EST
To:
Cc: Commission <commission@mtlebanon.org>
Subject: Re: Sterilization deer permit Inquiry


We are working with Mr. DeNicola and are hopeful that we may have answers and a proposal for the Game Commission by the end of April. 

"When WE see the deer," Kristen? UPDATED

Mt. Lebanon Puts Plan In Place To Begin Culling Deer Population

“When we see the deer are in there, we send a text message back to the gate and it closes,” Linfante said. 

Since Pennsylvania doesn’t allow relocating the deer, a wildlife team will go to the corral at night and shoot the deer. 

“Because of the close range, it’s a very immediate result and there are very few risks or concerns involved,” Linfante says.

Update January 29, 2015 12:45 PM Wildlife Specialists, LLC proposal and signed agreement has been uploaded on to the municipal website. A link to the proposal and agreement has been added to this update.