MNR investigating deaths of at least four deer in Niagara
Conservation officers continue to appeal for public’s assistance
Cameron Mcgean is still troubled by the grisly discovery he made a week ago.
The St. Catharines resident was enjoying a day boating on Lake Ontario with a friend, when he spotted something floating in the water about one kilometre from shore off Port Dalhousie.
“I said, ‘There’s a body out there,’” he recalled.
It was the body of a deer floating in the water, far from where any deer ought to be.
He made a video of the discovery and posted it on Facebook, although he has since removed it.
“Never in my life have I seen something like this,” Mcgean said in the video.
He said it wasn’t typical nylon rope that was securely tied on the deer’s
hoof.
He described it as coarse “old farm rope,” which led him to suspect something untoward about his discovery. Mcgean was furious. “Something ain’t right,” he said.
An avid deer hunter, Mcgean said the remains he found were of a yearling doe.
Mcgean estimated it had likely only been in the water for two days.
He started making phone calls from his boat to various agencies hoping someone would take an interest.
“They basically laughed at me,” he said.
Mcgean said he offered to drag the deer to shore, but was told to just leave it where he found it.
“Nobody cared about this deer.”
But that changed after similar reports were shared on social media, including one by St. Catharines resident Kaitlin Wharton, who found a deer on shore the next day, and Niagara Falls resident Omar Flores, who said he found three deer a week earlier in the Niagara River Gorge.
All of them had the same type of rope tied around their legs.
Mcgean was contacted last
Tuesday by a Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry investigator, who told him the office had received hundreds and hundreds of phone calls and emails.
“This completely blew up. He (the MNR investigator) said this is the hottest topic right now in Niagara.”
Mcgean said the investigator told him there have been multiple deer found, and “we don’t know what’s going on, but there’s something going on.”
Wharton and Flores both said they, too, had been contacted by MNR investigators regarding the deer they found.
Ministry spokesperson Maimoona Dinani said investigators are looking into the deaths of four deer in three separate locations in the region.
“A fifth deer is also being investigated, to determine if there is a connection to the discovery of the four other deer,” she added.
Dinani said conservation officers are continuing to appeal for the public’s assistance in the ongoing investigation.
Anyone with any information that could help investigators can contact the MNRF tip line at 1-877-847-7667, or phone Crime Stoppers at 1-800-2228477 if they wish to remain anonymous.