Deer Carcasses Fill Stretch of Cedar Rapids Road

CEDAR RAPIDS - A boat launch on Otis Road SE in Cedar Rapids can be a tempting place for people to dump items and drive away unnoticed.  Especially during the winter months, long after the boating season is over.

Yet deer carcasses are also popping up just yards from the boat launch, near the 2000 block of Otis Road.  The Cedar River runs along the road through the southeast side of the city. 

"It's a little uglier than someone throwing out a couch or a sofa," said Joe Wilkinson of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Robert Lee, of Cedar Rapids, is a stock photographer.  He said, on a recent early morning, he was watching for hawks to photograph in flight.

"As the wind shifted, there was this real strong stench," said Lee.  "My first thought was a dead body.  We look over by the water and you could see the antlers."

On Wednesday afternoon, Wilkinson walked through and examined three carcasses.  He noted that each carcass appeared to have been dumped at different times because of the contrasting level of decomposition.

Wilkinson said about "112,000 deer" had been harvested in Iowa since October 2010 and acknowledged some of those deer will end up on roadsides or other grassy or wooded areas.

Lee said the carcasses along that part of Otis Road were just a few compared with what he said he saw further down the river's edge.

"I don't know if they're dumping them," said Lee.  "I think someone is poaching them or killing them for fun."

Looking through what was left of the carcasses, Wilkinson pointed out a bullet hole in one deer but said he was unable to say if any of the deer had been poached.

"It's quite apparently an illegal littering case," said Wilkinson.  He said a person caught littering, whether a deer or any other item, could face a misdemeanor charge.

A situation like this, Wilkinson said, can also raise awareness to encourage people to notice license plates of others they may suspect of dumping or littering.

[HTML1]