Deer with arrows through heads horrify neighbors of south Charlotte greenway

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Neighbors of Little Sugar Creek Greenway in Charlotte are horrified and incensed after spotting wandering deer with arrows shot through their heads.

“So awful,” a woman from the Starmount neighborhood in south Charlotte posted on NextDoor.

“I occasionally hunt and this disgusts me,” a resident of the Preston Flats community posted.

“Hunt the (expletive) down who did this,” a man from the Olde Providence North community said on the site.

Residents have seen a doe and a fawn with arrows through their heads and posted photos of the deer on NextDoor.

“The arrows being used are not even true hunting arrows, just practice arrows,” Huntingtowne Farms resident Stephanie Kraska told The Charlotte Observer in an email.

The two deer appear to be surviving the trauma, according to posts on NextDoor.

A resident posted this photo on NextDoor of a deer with an arrow through its head in the Starmount area of south Charlotte.
A resident posted this photo on NextDoor of a deer with an arrow through its head in the Starmount area of south Charlotte.

But a “Mama with two fawns who has a short black arrow going in one side of her head and coming out the other can’t put her tongue back in her mouth,” Kraska said.

It’s illegal

Charlotte city code bans shooting with a bow and arrow “except in a licensed shooting gallery or range or by permission of the city council.”

The penalty, however, might only further aggrieve those outraged by what happened.

Sampson Parker Jr., the only state Wildlife Resources Commission enforcement officer based in Mecklenburg County, said shooters face a mere $50 fine plus court costs under the Charlotte ordinance.

Still, N.C. Wildlife officers do everything they can to catch the offenders, Sampson said.

He urged anyone who sees a person shooting with a bow and arrow to call the N.C. Wildlife Violations Hotline at 1-800-662-7137. An officer will immediately be dispatched to the scene, he said.

About two weeks ago, N.C. Wildlife responded to a report of a deer in Charlotte in the greenway area with an arrow in its head, but the deer was long gone when the officer arrived, Parker said.

Happens every year

Such incidents occur annually this time of year, according to Parker and Chris Matthews, director of nature preserves and natural resources at Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation.

“It’s just unfortunate that things like this happen,” Matthews said. “I’ve seen reports like this for a long time ... It’s pretty disturbing.”

Neither Parker nor Matthews thinks a creepy serial deer attacker is on the loose.

“Most of the time what we see is a bad shot,” Parker said.

And a deer “will duck and twirl” when it hears the thump of an arrow being released, he said.

Matthews, in a separate interview, agreed that a bad shot by someone with a bow and arrow could be at play.

Shootings elsewhere

Similar sightings of deer with arrows through their heads and bodies have drawn media attention elsewhere across the country in recent years. and, in at least one case, an offering of a reward by a hunting organization.

A six-point buck with an arrow “sticking squarely out of its forehead” became a local legend after sightings for more than a year in Crosslake, Minn., the Brainerd Dispatch reported in 2019.

A firearm safety instructor told the newspaper that he gets his students “thinking about the consequences of poor shots. Nobody wants to leave an animal out there wounded.”

In 2018, Oregon wildlife investigators successfully removed arrows shot through multiple deer, according to an Oregon State Police Facebook post at the time. The Oregon Hunters Association offered a $500 reward in the case.

And in 2013, a New Jersey woman posted a photo on Facebook of a young deer she spotted in her backyard with an arrow through its head, The Washington Post reported.

Wildlife authorities tranquilized the deer, removed the arrow and called the deer’s survival chances “excellent.”

‘Beyond despicable’

Some neighbors of Little Sugar Creek Greenway in Charlotte remain skeptical that bad shots led to arrows through the heads of the deer. They insist that someone is shooting the deer on purpose.

“The arrow is a ‘bolt’ from a crossbow and has a target tip, not a broadhead normally used for hunting,” a resident of the Myers Park East neighborhood posted on NextDoor. “This was not done by a hunter (but) ... by someone who has a crossbow and just wants to shoot deer in the head.”

But all agreed: The shooter or shooters need to be caught and punished, and soon.

“Beyond despicable!!” a Starmount man posted on NextDoor

“Whoever shot this beautiful defenseless deer needs a taste of his/her own irresponsible decision!” a woman from the Park South Station subdivision posted on the site.