In North Buffalo, Pennsylvania, Randy Good has created a novel and disgusting nuisance. He has agreed to remove a pile of hundreds of dead deer from his property which has neighbors gagging from the odor.
In torts, we often debate what constitutes a nuisance. This would appear to satisfy even the most restrictive definition. Randy Good has a contract with the state to remove dead deer from the side of roads within 24 hours. That results in a daily collection of 50 to 100 dead deer which often end up on his property as a rotting heap.
Good insists that “Everyone has a job. This is part of it.” However, he has agreed to remove the pile of dead deer — a wise move.
For the full story, click here.
Jeff P:
“I have a friend who is a PennDOT employee and works at a maintenance area in Butler County and brags about how he doesn’t do anything but flirt with the secretary and play on the computer.”
Sounds like he has family in VDOT.
I wonder if this guy just lives to far from a rendering plant?
I met this guy, I think, a few years back when I hit a deer on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
A herd was trying to figure out how to get past the concrete jersey barrier placed down the middle of the highway by the geniuses at PennDOT, apparently to collect migrating deer along the state’s highways. (The barrier affords no gap or indentation to wild animals- maybe because people feel they deserve to be hit for trespassing on the highway in the first place.) I came around a gentle curve at 65 mph to find confused deer all over the road.
Now it’s always the same story; a migrating herd gets stopped right in the middle of the turnpike by the stupid concrete barrier that stretches down the road and divides Pennsylvania into two distinct deer populations- like the Chinese Wall that the president just visited. The average central PA driver has had run-ins with deer before and everyone thinks this is quite normal and expected.
Now I have proudly swerved through clouds of deer on the Pennsylvania Turnpike at high speeds successfully in the past. However I was not so lucky this time. I hit one of them; it rolled up the side of the car, along the left of the windshield, and landed behind; I pulled over right away.
Amazingly there was nary a dent on the car. But the deer had a broken leg, and was lying in the middle of the right lane. I was trying to figure out what to do, because oncoming traffic kept encountering it and cars were spinning out trying to change lanes with no notice.
Then the Saint arrived. (Who knows, maybe it was this “Mr. Good”.) He pulled over in his pickup, came over to assess the situation, and quickly diagnosed the broken leg- as the deer gave him the most evil look that I have ever seen anyone give. The Saint and I agreed that the deer was inevitably about to enter Heaven, and he went to get a tire iron from his truck- to give the deer the most evil-sounding pair of whacks on the head I ever heard anyone give with a tire iron. Then the Saint and I together dragged the deer off the road.
A state patrol officer came upon the scene, assessed the situation for himself, and told us he saw nothing that needed writing up. (Which makes me wonder if anyone’s even informed PennDOT about their deer-proof barriers.) Despite a slight toothlessness, the Saint expressed interest in the meat and offered to take the deer home in his pickup. The officer and I gratefully helped him load the carcass into the bed of his pickup, on top of a pile of crap, and the Saint bade us farewell.
I’m not sure that this guy was the Saint, although his last name IS “Good”, which makes me suspicious.
I would be outraged if I was Randy Goods neighbor. What a scumbag! You have to smell this stench while your taxpayer dollars are filling his pockets. More than likely he’s got an “in” with the landfill guy he takes the dead deer to who produces as many receipts as he has paper.
Why aren’t PennDOT employees doing this work? You sure see enough of them standing around holding up shovels and sitting in their trucks sleeping.
I have a friend who is a PennDOT employee and works at a maintenance area in Butler County and brags about how he doesn’t do anything but flirt with the secretary and play on the computer.
AY–
I agree. Some of the news I read about in newspapers and blogs makes me shake my head in disbelief…and wonder about the minds of people who think up this kind of stuff.
The contract with the governing authority will probably include a place to temporarily store them in its next incarnation.
Especially if they have any public comments before letting it out for bid.
rafflaw,
They will now.
Elaine M.,
You can read too much, I have heard…
Professor Turley–
This is off topic–but thought you might find this interesting.
I found the following story via the Iglesias blog at ThinkProgress.
Anti-violence site urges you to ‘hit the bitch’
“A Danish advocacy group encourages you to “hit the bitch” as a way to end domestic violence. Basically, you go online and take a swing at a woman speaking. There are ratings for how “pussy” or “gangsta” you are — every time you slap the woman, you get more “gangsta.” The harder you hit, the more gangsta you are. The woman gets increasingly bruised as your “gangsta” rating creeps toward 100 percent.
“I was curious as to what the end message was going to be, so I kept “hitting the bitch” thinking after one or two times there would be some sort of lesson in all of this. But… no. You have to hit the woman like 15 times as she cries and touches her face and staggers backward and is bruised and bloody. It’s horrific. When you finally reach “100% Gangsta,” she falls over.”
Here’s a link to the article:
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/11/17/hit-the-bitch/
Wow! That pile must really reek. I don’t understand why the State would not have required the proper disposal of the deer in their contract with this deer removal “expert”.
Only funeral homes get away with this kind of stuff
Jill
Contrary to what you might think not all morticians do those things any more than all lawyers are scumsuckers
He could skin them and sell the hides in 3″x3″ swatches to make deer hair bodies for flies.
Gyges, think Humpies or mice or frogs.
Where will he take them? I’m hoping lots of buzzards and other carrion-loving creatures will get to pig-out.
What you mean there will be no Christmas? The deer are dead, on Randy’s sled. No more Christmas for you Virginia. You have now complained.
I’m thinking that smell aside, his neighbors at least don’t have to deer proof their gardens. Even stinky clouds can have a silver lining.
Only funeral homes get away with this kind of stuff!
Oh deer! That’s a tough way to make doe. But I guess a job is a job.