Dear editor:

I'm a 79-year-old resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake. 

I walk the Niagara Botanical Gardens and adjacent hydro corridors almost every second or third day. 

I often see deer and carry binoculars to observe them and birds in particular. 

Last Saturday, about 3:30 p.m. as I walked along the edge of the Whirlpool Golf Course in a southward direction, with the bush on my right and golf course on my left, I saw by chance a dead deer in the brush – but almost out on the cut part of the fairway grass. 

During the entire year of walking this area I have never seen a dead deer before, but the unusual and disturbing aspect was also that the animal had been decapitated – surgically and quite neatly. 

Clearly this is not the work of predatory animals or Niagara Parks or botanical gardens personnel.

A small purple piece of bunting had been tied to some brush near the body, so perhaps somebody has already taken note of this. 

On my way back to my car I saw no personnel of any kind to report this to though I later contacted the Niagara Parks Commission and regional police.

The more I think about it, the more disturbing it is. 

I can conceive of some kind of harmless explanation but given the circumstances and the carcass having been left to be found, harmlessness is unlikely.

Given also several stories about deer killed senselessly here in Niagara this past summer I think this latest event is probably nefarious.

Kaspar Pold

NOTL