ROGERS CITY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – In the quiet fall of 2024, Rogers City’s favorite visitor – a majestic bull elk named Roger – returned for what should have been another routine season. But this year, Roger’s friendly strolls took a darker turn when the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), fearing for public safety, took matters into their own hands, killing the bull elk, without so much as a town hall meeting, pulling the plug on Roger’s life in an abrupt end that still has locals sad and upset. The elk was killed on October 16th.

Roger, who got his name in honor of Rogers City, was a local celebrity who frequented the community in the fall for the last two years. His return saw an increase in human-initiated interactions which led to behavioral changes.

Elk gets more aggressive as it interacts with community.

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The Detroit Free Press reported that the elk got more aggressive according to Mayor Scott McLennan, even charging people recently and three complaints were received about the animal. The elk, which is rumored to have gotten larger this year, was reported to have shown up in the downtown business district.

According to State Rep. Cam Cavitt (R-Cheboygan), despite these bull-human interactions and the uptick in reports of unpredictable behavior, the DNR “failed to implement proactive measures to either relocate or monitor Roger to prevent the escalation that led to his death.” He added, “Apparently, the DNR didn’t read their own hunting guide, as elk is not currently in season,” he said. “While I understand the importance of public safety, there should have been a discussion about relocating Roger before resorting to such an extreme measure…It’s sad that it had to end this way.”

A letter to the DNR.

Rep. Cavitt and a group of 18 bipartisan lawmakers are now grilling the DNR in a letter, questioning why killing Roger was the only answer. “Trigger-happy” doesn’t begin to cover it, with Cavitt insisting, “Roger was a member of our community.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by the locals who loved their seasonal elk celebrity, and the outcry has led the Rogers City Council to demand a formal review of the DNR’s euthanization practices. Surely, Cavitt says, there had to be a way to relocate Roger rather than a death sentence. Or even send him to an animal sanctuary if he’s overly domesticated.

A squirrel’s case of government overkill.

If Roger’s story of state overreach isn’t bad enough, let’s go a few states over to the saga of P’Nut the Squirrel in New York. P’Nut was an Instagram-famous squirrel with a flair for public appeal, living in the comfort of Mark Longo’s Pine City sanctuary for nearly seven years.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), citing public safety, raided Longo’s property, snatched P’nut (and his raccoon buddy Fred), and after a state agent got a nibble from P’Nut, that small bite unleashed a dramatic storm with the DEC sending the critters off for decapitation and rabies testing without a second thought. The final insult? The rabies test came back negative.

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Donald Trump Jr. even chimed in, railing against a government that can’t seem to find time for real threats to city and the rest of the country but will aggressively track down someone with a pet squirrel. Local officials like Chemung County Executive Chris Moss tried to calm the storm by saying, “Wildlife cannot be confined like domestic animals, and if there was an exposure, the animals would need to be tested for rabies.”

A lawsuit is planned.

The government, however, has been caught in a lie about when the state decided to kill the squirrel with the New York Post reporting that the squirrel was “marked for death” before the government even went to round him up. The report says, “A newly revealed timeline shows state officials advised the county to euthanize the pets a full seven days before they were taken from their unofficial caretaker Mark Longo on Oct. 30 – even though the Department of Environmental Conservation later said the squirrel bit an agent during the raid, sparking the need for the test.”

Longo, still in shock, plans a “very big” lawsuit to demand answers about why P’Nut and Fred’s lives were so abruptly ended.

DNR and DEC: guardians or gunslingers?

From Michigan to New York, wildlife “protection” agencies seem to be walking a fine line between safeguard and kill-first-ask-questions-later policies. Roger’s killing without community consultation feels to many like the DNR overstepped its mandate, much like DEC’s heavy-handed response in New York with P’Nut and Fred.

Both agencies insist it’s about public safety, but at what cost? Some say these so-called protectors might want to check their “judge, jury, and executioner” attitudes at the door before any more wildlife mascots find themselves on the wrong side of a government raid or an elk hunt.

Both Roger and P’Nut’s stories highlight a concerning trend of government overreach that has left communities questioning just whom these agencies are really protecting.