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Denville, New Jersey. Joe McCabe. Animals Die via Irresponsible Trash Management.

There are bits of news that are extraordinary in their nature that they are almost a source of merriment than disappoinment or joy. You know the stuff---bank robber caught in a surveillance video with his name tag on his chest; after hours liquor store intruder who couldn't get out through the broken window he used to enter the premises; a mugger who mistakenly targeted an undercover cop. Thanks for the memories and the laughs.

Well, I don't know if it is proper to compare Joe McCabe's case to those mentioned above, but certainly his level of stupidity and carelessness made those guys look sharp. In Denville, NJ this week, Joe McCabe created a string of events that landed him on the pages of NJ.Com. Who in his right mind would leave his daughter's pet rabbit on a screened porch and alongside an unsecured garbage bin in bear country? Well, Joe McCabe! I know that it pays to advertise but McCabe virtually put up a giant pulsating neon sign along a bear superhighway that said, FOOD FOOD FOOD.

Not surprisingly, a black bear came along and scrounged the unsecured garbage bin, and then tore his way into the screened porch and devoured the rabbit. This 400-lb bear was later shot down from a tree by Denville cops, opting to go lethal over a capture and release alternative. Why kill a bear that wasn't menacing people, one that already climbed a tree in fear? The responding blockheads from the Denville Police Department should be answerable to the people, but they might have a problem with articulating their thought processes even if the logical equations they made were simple. Or, is that given them too much credit?

With an 11-yr old girl traumatized, a rabbit and a black bear dead, and responding police officers having used lethal force when it was unnecessary, wouldn't you think that Joe McCabe would, at least, issue a mea culpa? Basically, it would run like, " I am a dumb ass and I am sorry for my careless actions. I will go over to Home Depot and get bear-proof garbage bins and keep pets indoors from now on. "

If not, the next time he puts out the garbage for collection, it would be nice of Joe McCabe to put himself in it too.


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