A deer that was hit and killed by a vehicle on North Road lay in the ditch for nearly three weeks before Capilano Highway Services came to properly dispose of the animal.
Nearby resident Zoe Barbaro said she called numerous times for Capilano Highway Services to remove the deer that was struck on Sept. 21, but the company didn’t send a crew to deal with it for several days.
“It had been nearly a week by this point so you can imagine the deer was not in a favourable condition for removal,” Barbaro said.
“So [Capilano Highway Services] opted to simply leave it where it was and throw a pile of sandy dirt on it, about a foot deep.”
Barbaro said the treatment of the animal left her worried about possible health concerns with the decomposing carcass near the end of her driveway.
She also feared the shallowly buried deer carcass would become an attractant for wild animals.
By Oct. 7 the carcass had been unearthed by an animal and partially eaten.
Contacted for comment, Capilano Highways Services manager of roads Tyler Lambert said he was sending out a crew to properly dispose of the carcass on Oct. 11.
“I can assure you that the disposal of a dead animal in this fashion is not our normal practice and we are investigating to determine what factors contributed to both the delays in removal and decision-making in this incident,” Lambert told Coast Reporter.
“Animal removal is just that, and while there may be instances where different pieces of equipment are required to effect the removal appropriately, our practice is to remove the remains in as timely a manner as possible. Obviously this did not happen in this particular instance.”
