Deer shot in Eugene: 'Some poacher criminal ... needs to be brought to justice'
EUGENE, Ore. -- A buck deer shot through the neck with an arrow was still alive when found in a neighborhood near West 40th Street inside the Eugene city limits this week.
The buck deer was first spotted last week. There were no legal hunting seasons for deer in effect at the time.
A state wildlife biologist euthanized the deer on Thursday.
"It had been wounded and still had the arrow in it and had an infection," said Brian Wolfer, the biologist with the state who evaluated the deer and euthanized it.
"This is, in a lot of ways, especially egregious," he said. "It was just a blatant case of poaching."
The Oregon State Police Fish & Wildlife Division is asking for the public's help to identify the person who shot the deer. Anyone with information in this case should contact the Oregon State Police Turn In Poacher (TIP) hotline at 1-800-452-7888.
Wolfer hopes someone will turn in the culprit.
"In that area, you're not going to run around with a bow and arrow without somebody seeing something," he said.
City deer versus country deer
Wolfer said state biologists don't monitor "city limit" deer because the herds don't face the same impacts as country deer.
"The buck ratio isn't going to be affected by hunting," he said. "The deer in town, the predation rate on them is quite low" because there are few in any coyotes, bobcats or cougars inside the city limits.
"I think a lot of our city limit deer are born and raised within the city limits," Wolfer said. "We have a unique situation where we built our houses and subdivisioins and tried to save as much of the open spaces as we could."
The Ridgeline Park in the south hills of Eugene near where the deer was found is 1,000 acres of forest and meadow.
Beyond parkland and open space, homes in the south hills tend to have open yards.
"A lot of the south hills, you don't have fences between the yards," Wolfer said. "These deer are living in and amongst pretty small lot sizes.
"That does have its own issues with people who want to grow roses or gardens. There's the occasional vehicle collision," Wolfer said.
Otherwise, south Eugene is a "haven" for deer. "The deer have really adapted to living in and amongst people," Wolfer said.
The hills are also home to flocks of wild turkey, which were introduced as a game bird in the region and flourished.
The deer are native to the area, Wolfer said.
"They were alwways there," he said. "Once we built and moved in and didn't just bring a bulldozer in and level the ground and start from scratch, we left the stuff there that is good for deer and good for other wildlife."
Living close to people can pose a threat to deer health: disease. Neither the state of Oregon nor the City of Eugene have a law against feeding wild deer.
However, when people feed deer, the animals congregate together more than usual. The result in southern Oregon, Wolfer said, has been disease outbreaks among city limit deer.
And then there are poachers.
"The deer needed to get put down to put it out of its pain and suffering," Wolfer said. "Some poacher criminal with blatant disregard for the well-being of that deer caused it a lot of suffering and pain and needs to be brought to justice."
