Woodstock Early Bird The Early Bird Gets the Worm: earlybirdtips@gmail.com

They’re subtle those little piggy’s inserted onto the backs of Vermont cows featured on a Vermont State Police decal created by an inmate. Well, if you give an inmate a chance to design and create and execute something to be used by the Vermont State Police, well…if might be like having the fox watch the hen house: No good will come from it. Let’s just say you might just be on the look-out for some egg on the face. Or to mix the metaphor more some, you might be expecting some “Piggy hanky-panky.”

Woodstock Early Birds sent us various write-ups about the Vermont State Police cruiser decal dust-up late last week so, in the interest of providing readers the “original text” of the event that has now led to a “Save the Vermont Pigs” movement (We’re not kidding. Someone has created a Facebook page for just that purpose) here is the original Vermont State Police press release about the indignity perpetrated on police by the already incarcerated perps:

PRESS RELEASE
VSP Door Decals Inappropriately Modified

Waterbury, VT – 02/02/12 – Yesterday, on February 1, a member of the Vermont State Police (VSP) brought to the attention of VSP Fleet Services that some of the VSP cruiser door decals were inappropriately modified during the design and printing process. The Vermont State Police emblem was printed at the Vermont Correctional Industries Print Shop, a section of the State of Vermont Department of Corrections. The Print Shop is contracted by VSP to design and produce decals and other print graphic products. The modifications made to the design specifically involve the cow pictured in the lower right portion of the decal and contains an image of a pig on the cow’s shoulder. VSP Fleet Services believes that there are approximately 30 cruisers that were equipped with these decals over the past year. The process of removing the sixty 16” door decals will begin as soon as practical.

“While some may find humor in the decal modifications,” said Major Bill Sheets, “the joke unfortunately comes at the expense of the tax payers.”

Officials from the Department of Corrections Print Shop are working diligently to correct the emblem and print new decals for the Vermont State Police. The source and timing of the modifications are still being reviewed by the Department of Corrections.

Any remaining decals have been destroyed.

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Woodstock Early Bird was ready to be indignant about the whole affair and the besmirching of our Vermont State Police patrol cars. But. Upon seeing the actual graphic and the adorably indistinct pigs on cows, we think they should be saved, too. They don’t draw attention to themselves and really, we see the cows first, the pigs second. We are, after all, an agricultural state, no? Save the Vermont pigs! Maple cured bacon for one and all. Especially our Vermont State Police troopers whose service we really do appreciate.