Animal rights activists say Minnetonka is state cruelty capitol
February 28, 1996
The Sun Sailor Newspaper (Minnetonka, MN)
By Jason Forester-Kulhanek
"Minnetonka is the cruelty capitol of Minnesota," said Steven Hindi, president of the Chicago Animal Rights Coalition during a press conference Feb. 20 at the Minnetonka City Hall.
"When Minnetonka residents see how inhumane deer trapping is, they'll demand it be stopped," said Hindi to about one dozen mostly sympathetic Minnetonka residents.
The deer are trapped as a part of the city's trap-and-shoot program to reduce the deer herd by 175 and 250 deer this winter because of deer overpopulation.
According to Hindi, the film would be shown to Minnetonkan residents in the hope they would see the programs as too violent and demand it be stopped.
Hindi said at the conference that Bobbi Rudh, president of Minnetonkans Against Animal Cruelty (MAAC), approached him "some time ago" to videotape a trapped deer, something Hind said he has done in other parts of the country.
That MACC is attempting to film a trapped deer became public after Hindi, Rudh and MAAC member Cecelia Constantine were arrested 3:20 a.m. Feb. 19, after police witnessed the trio within 100 feet of a deer trap, a violation of city ordinance 506.06, punishable by a $700 fine and 90 days in jail.
Police confiscated a list of video and surveillance equipment from a van used by the three activists.
Hindi said the arrest will not stop his efforts to film.
Filming a trapped deer in Minnetonka would have to be done clandestinely since city officials have disallowed the public to observe the program in operation – which leads some, including Hindi and Rudh, to believe the city has something to hide.
According to Hindi, the city wants to keep residents in the dark about what he said is a violent program.
"The deer are in these traps thrashing and crying for hours, waiting to be slaughtered," said Hindi.
Hindi went on to say that the deer often suffer broken bones and their antlers get tangled in the netting of the trap.
This is in contrast to the picture painted by city officials, including Steve Sandwick, director of administrative services for the Minnetonka police. Sandwick has said the deer enter the trap and "bed down."
If the deer simply lie down in the trap, "why won't the city allow someone from the media to film a deer in a trap?" asked Rudh at the conference.
Minnetonka Police Director Richard Setter said during a police press conference conducted after MAAC's conference that having the media film a deer in a trap "would not be in the interest of the public."
He declined to elaborate.
