Deer shot in Rock Creek Park Nov 26, 27, and 29th

On the evening of Monday Nov 26, sawhorses and park service workers were spotted in one of rhe usual locations where "deer removal" shooting takes place on Oregon Ave on the Rock Creek side shortly after 7PM. South of military road, park roads excluding Beach Drive were blocked off with sawhorses and park service vehicles including trucks big enough to move dead deer were behind some of the barricades.All of the same positions were set up again the following night and two nights later(Nov 27 and 29).

In addition, it is likely although not confirmed that NPS's deer shooters from USDA Wildlife "Services" were also shooting on Wed, Nov 28. The park did not get a surveillance run that night, nothing was seen earlier at 4:30PM, but NPS does not begin setting up until about 5:30PM. It appears that they are hoping to shoot and kill enough deer to meet their quota before activists against the slaughter can put together a response. They started shooting just six days after their "window" of time opened, and in prior years started in December or January.

In prior years, the presence of protesters at Military Road has been enough to force the Park Service to discontinue shooting until protesters had departed and been absent over an hour, usually after midnight rather than their preferred 10PM time to start shooting. This was after a protest in the second year of deer shooting created issues where Park Service or"Wildlife Services" workers were unwilling to drive trucks carrying dead deer past camera-wielding protesters. The shooting in the DC portion of Rock Creek Park historically has been done by USDA "Wildlife Services" which is known to be protester-shy and camera-shy.

Speaking of cameras, the other thing "Wildlife Services" and "deer removal" programs in general are known to fear is passive infra-red (IR) cameras hidden in the woods where they are known to shoot. This sort of thing has led to video footage of wounded deer being finished off with a plastic bag tied around their head in a northeast jurisdiction a few years ago. There was also the incident in Rock Creek Park where a wounded deer survived a week before being photographed dead in Rock Creek itself, a photo later used in posters in the park condemning the deer slaughter operation.