Townsend’s chipmunks are on a list of protected species under Washington law, Animal Services director Susanne Beauregard said. Killing animals on such a list is a misdemeanor.
Greg Bailey, the owner and contractor for the construction project on 28th Court, said he fired the two subcontractors after he confronted them Wednesday and they admitted to shooting the chipmunks with nail guns. He said the two men were doing framing work at the site.
“I can’t even believe they did it,” Bailey said. “I’m just appalled.”
The wife of one of the suspects, who identified the other suspect as her nephew, said the chipmunks were pests and chewed up the job site.
“This is a pest issue,” said the woman, who would only be identified by her first name, Teresa.
“We love animals,” she said. “I am a total animal lover.”
Teresa said it hurts her family to lose the income from the construction job.
“Shooting them with a nail gun is not the way to go,” Beauregard said. “This was a very bad decision. It doesn’t look to me like this was the only option available.”
Most construction workers know not to inhumanely kill animals at job sites, Beauregard said.
She said it is her understanding that the chipmunks became pests after some construction workers began feeding them. It appears that trees in the area were cut down to make room for the construction site.
Bailey learned of the impaled chipmunks the same way The Olympian did: Someone noticed the dead animals abandoned at the job site, then took photos of them and anonymously sent them out to media, to Bailey’s construction firm, BGC, and to Animal Services.
“I am appalled at this conduct and in no way does BGC or anyone in our company, personally or professionally condone this behavior,” Bailey wrote in an e-mail.
Beauregard said an Animal Control officer was interviewing one of the suspects Wednesday. Both suspects have been identified, she said. She said both are young men. Animal-cruelty charges might be referred to the Thurston County prosecutor, she said.
The dead chipmunks have been recovered, and though it appears they were alive when they were shot, a necropsy will be performed on both animals to definitively determine their cause of death, Beauregard said.
Jeremy Pawloski: 360-754-5465
