Archive for November, 2009

I told them since they mixed them up, and did not allow me to cage them by name; I could not identify each raccoon and know which area they came from.  They asked if they had been vaccinated.  I told them yes, the veterinarian had all of the records.  However, it was not a law that they had to be vaccinated, although all of them were vaccinated for parvo, distemper, and rabies.  They took the animals on that Friday the conservation officers positioned the animal carriers facing  one another so that each raccoon could see one another, and shot them through the top of the carriers so they could see eachother die.  They killed almost all of them. except for 2.   The 2 not shot were taken to the Mercer County Center and were there for a few months until the head of the nature center, Diane Nickerson killed them.  F&G told the media it was necessary to kill them because they were not vaccinated.

The courts had ordered a test of the raccoons to see if they had been vaccinated as the veterinary records showed, but F&G ordered them we killed before they could be tested.   I had been charged with illegal possession and the court went on for 8 years.  We eventually won the case.  The judge did not see a reason to kill the animals since there were records signed off by the doctor on the vaccinations.  The judge saw that it took so long that justice delayed was justice denied.  He saw no reason for the complaint in the first place so he dismissed it.

All of those raccoons died for nothing. They were physically and mentally tortured the last hours of their life by our NJ Fish & Game Officers.   The memory of what took place that day and the lengthy trial will remain a nightmare I will remember the rest of my life.

Bill Sleight

Bookmark This!

Hide Sites

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I went to my car and picked up the copy of the paperwork I had sent them, and handed it to Lisa.  She said,” well, it’s too late.”  It was obvious they used this paperwork as an excuse to come to my house.  She then got on the radio and said that the area was secure.  Then, two trucks pulled up and parked at both ends of the road and all of the men come piling out of the truck from F&G, they went in the house and started netting the animals.  The baby raccoons they grabbed with snare poles.  They were just little babies; they did not have to do that.  Then they went out in the back.  They had the Long Branch Animal Control with them, the Long Branch Police, and the health department. They went into the huge walk in cages I have for the raccoons, and started snare poling the animals around the neck.  I yelled at them not to do that, their necks are too sensitive for that, you must do it around the waist.  The Long Branch Animal Control told conservation officers not to snare them around the neck, it was incorrect. NJ F&G barked back that they were the experts and continued poling them around the neck.  The animals were screaming, and the raccoons were reaching their arms out of the cages toward me to help them. (Raccoons are trusting of their caretakers).I moved towards one of the conservation officers on the scene (it was Larry Herrighty’s brother). I wanted them to stop hurting the raccoons.  Larry Herrighty’s brother told the other conservation officers to restrain me.  The conservation officers jumped me and held guns pointed at my head, then turned to the police officers and barked a command to cuff me.  The officers refused to cuff me and requested that the conservation officers remove the guns pointed at my head.  The F&G officers relayed to the police that I was a threat.  The police officers told the F&G that I was not a threat.  They said,” The man has no shirt on or shoes”.  I was held under guard for 2 hours in the back of the property.  I couldn’t do a thing.  When they finally gathered up all of the animals they asked where they all came from.  I had named my animals by code to identify the towns where each animal came from, so when released they would go back to the area they came from.

To be continued

Bookmark This!

Hide Sites

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I then spoke to a Verna Gengler, she told me she never heard from me, and didn’t know who I was, but yet I have paperwork from her with her signature on it.  I shared this information with her and she stated that she really was not involved with this thing anyway.  Later on that day Lisa Trifelli called me up about 3:45 pm , said she heard that I spoke to Larry Herrighty around 10am that morning, and told me that I must now have my physical permit.  She said she would like to come up and give it to me.  I agreed to it, and then asked her if this was a bust.  She said,” no, no, no I wouldn’t do that to you.  I just want to come up and inspect your facility, and give you your permit.” 

Well, they had already inspected the facility because I had showed it to them, but I agreed anyway.  I told them to give me a call to make sure I was there, because I wasn’t living in the house.  I was fixing the house up at the time.  I had been warned by another rehabilitator not to trust them.  Come Friday outright lies were not acceptable.  I had a copy of all of the paperwork I had sent to their office. The Fish & Game came to my house with the police and the health department.  They asked if I was William Sleight, and I said yes and asked what was going on.  I asked if this was a bust, and stated to Lisa Trifelli that she said she was not going to do this.  She said,” I lied”.  She said that law enforcement was allowed to do that.  Being a former police officer I knew that there was something called deception, but outright lies were not acceptable.  I had a copy of all the paperwork I had sent to their office.

To be continued

Bookmark This!

Hide Sites

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I then gave the conservation officers my business card from the SPCA, and then they left.  This happened on a Friday.  On Monday I phoned the F&G office I spoke to a Larry Herrighty.  I asked if there was a problem, and Larry said yes there was.  He said that I did not return the questionnaire.  The questionnaire was in the packet I received and it was only given to rehabilitators.  The purpose was to gather information from wildlife rehabilitators so that the state could put together a standardized manual of care, this was asking for input for all of the rehabilitators.  I had sent back that information.  NJ F&G claimed that they did not get it.  Then Herrighty said I was in trouble because I did not have my permit.  I told them that I knew they only processed them in March or May, but so long as a rehabilitator having the physical paperwork in hand you were covered, so physically having the permit in your possession was not necessary.  Then he said, “Well, there is a conflict of interest.”  He said,” you’re with the SPCA.”  I asked what was the conflict of interest?  Herrighty said,  “your statutes and ours.” So I said you mean that you kill them and I save them. Herrighty then said,” Had we known that you were with the SPCA we would have never accepted you in the program and given you a permit.” This clarified to me that I was accepted and issued a permit. There was no question or grey area about it. I assumed that the way they found out I was with the SPCA is because I handed my card to the conservation officers a couple of days before that. I did not realize at the time that they had remembered I was the officer who prosecuted the two police officers who beat the deer to death two years earlier.

To be continued

Bookmark This!

Hide Sites

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I was working with NJ State SPCA as a Law Enforcement Officer in 1992 two Freehold Twp police officers were dispatched to a deer that was hit on the road on t. 537 in Freehold Twp on a Bell Lab property. It was about a quarter of a mile from the road hit by a delivery truck about 4 am. The deer had a broken back from the accident.  The police officers took out a bolt cutter and they beat the deer to death.  I was called in on the case and prosecuted the police officers on needlessly beating and torturing an animal. I was called by my office to call NJ Fish & Game about the incident. I spoke to a Marty McQue he said that they would appreciate it if I dropped the charges.  I refused to drop the charges, I did not work for NJ Fish, Game and Wildlife, I worked for the State SPCA and that these two officers were guilty and I was going to prosecute them.  That was the last I heard about it.

About two years later in 1993 I applied to NJ Fish, Game & Wildlife for my rehabilitator’s permit I sent them the application, and then did not receive any notice from them.  In March of 1993 I phoned them to ask them what my status was, NJ F&G said that they never received my application, they did not know who I was, nor ever heard of me before.  I asked them to send me the application again, they did.  I filled it out and sent it back July 1994.  I received a packet with all the rules and regulations, and a list of wildlife rehabilitators in the State, and they sent me my $7.00 check back with an explanation that they did not charge for the license, it is free.  The check I sent them was by mistake, it was only needed if holding a captive pet, not wildlife rehabilitation.  In August of 1994 two NJ Conservation Officers came to my house one was named Lisa Trifelli, they asked if I was William Sleight, and I said I was.  The officers said that they were here about raccoons.  At the time I had 20 raccoons.  I thought that they were bringing me more raccoons, when I found out that they were investigating me, I told them that I had all of the necessary paperwork that I needed. They asked for the permit, and I told them that they had not sent it to me yet, then I showed them the back of the property, the cages and animals, and they responded it was ok.  They said they were going to check their records for my information, and realized that they had spelled my name wrong.  They spelled it Slate I’m sleight, I explained if they looked they would see that that the paperwork was sent to them, and I had received paperwork from the State.  I told them in the paperwork I received, I was sent a directory, and they stated that I must be ok because that directory only gets sent to licensed rehabilitators in case I need to network with them.  I was also told police departments may get the directory as a list in case they need to refer to a wildlife rehabilitator, but it is not for the open public.

To be continued

Bookmark This!

Hide Sites

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!