We’re not sure, but we think the groundhog crossed the road for the same reason the chicken did. The problem for this one is that he seemed to do it a number of times, interfering with the flow of traffic. Unfortunately for this Maryland rodent, there was a Carroll County sheriff’s deputy there waiting for him on the other side.

The deputy got out of his vehicle to get the groundhog away from the roadway, but the deputy reported that the groundhog was not acting normally.

Maybe the deputy’s more experienced in groundhog behavioral norms that we are, because we’re not sure we could recognize abnormal activity in one of the beasts. But this little guy had been weaving in and out of traffic, so maybe he’d had one too many cocktails before trying to do the responsible thing and walk home.

Anyway, the officer had traffic halted, so the groundhog decided to traverse the roadway one more time.

“Believing the groundhog to be either sick or injured,” the deputy shot the groundhog, and “put the animal down for the public’s safety,” the sheriff’s office said.

As the indecent was captured on video, this will almost surely shut down most of the internet today. If the officer’s identity becomes known, look for threats against his life and those of his family. We haven’t seen an outraged PETA statement yet, but we’re sure they’re busily at work, tapping out a press release.

Here’s the sheriff’s office’s statement on the matter:

“The deputy was travelling on Rt 26 in the area of White Rock Road when he observed traffic backing up along the road. He found that the groundhog in question was walking into the roadway, causing vehicles to stop and creating a hazard. He got out of his vehicle to assess, and as he tried to direct the groundhog off of the roadway, he realized that it was not responding as expected for an animal that was not being cornered or trapped. Believing the groundhog to be either sick or injured, the deputy then put the animal down for the public’s safety.”

More to the point, it took two shots to bring down the groundhog. It seems obvious that the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department is using underpowered firearms, probably something in a 9mm. If they’re going to be facing groundhogs and larger game, they probably need to be carrying something that chambers a round that starts with a 4. Any suggestions?