City officials said the deaths of four deer found in and near the city’s Hollywood neighborhood last month appear to be the work of deer poachers.
Officials said few clues were left to identity the poachers and no investigation is being conducted.
City Director of Public Services Bob Ryan said there have been no reports of illegal shootings or bow hunting in the city, but said the carcasses had obviously been dumped in the North College Park community.
“We don’t even know if [the poachers] were even from College Park,” city Animal Control officer Lori Thiele said. “It’s hunting season right now, so they could have been killed elsewhere. Whether or not they were shot in College Park really can’t be determined.”
Regulations for deer hunting prohibit poaching within city limits, though Thiele cited the Beltsville Area Agricultural Research Center and local parks as major hunting sites in the area. She said sportsmen legally hunting in other areas probably carelessly disposed of the carcasses.
“It’s kind of strange that they would dump them so blatantly in College Park,” Thiele said. “They were just kind of way out in the open. It’s just a matter of sheer laziness that people don’t know how to take care of the carcasses they have to get rid of.”
Though the city is an urban area, Ryan said it is not uncommon to see animals in the area because deer hunting season begins in late November.
“With increasing development, there’s more wildlife moving into urban areas,” Ryan said. “There really is a lot of wildlife in the city.”
Thiele, however, said this is the first string of poaching she has witnessed after two years on the job.
Mark Shroder, president of the North College Park Citizens Association, said he had not heard any reports of deer hunting in the area, but noted the oddity of the occurrences.
“We’ve not had a particular problem,” he said. “I don’t want to promise that we are going to do anything about it if it’s a one-time event.”
