COOS BAY, Ore. — Poachers shot three black-tailed bucks over the weekend of March 19, likely using a spotlight, and then left them to waste on the North Spit of Coos Bay. There is a $1500 reward offered for information that leads to a citation in the case.
All three deer were shot in the head, from relatively close range, according to Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Sergeant Levi Harris. Because the deer were found so close together, Harris believes they were blinded by a spotlight, which gave a shooter time to aim and drop each deer individually. In a normal hunting situation, a single shot at one deer would have startled others into flight. Black-tailed deer hunting season is currently closed.
There were no footprints or tire tracks leading to the site according to US Department of Agriculture employee, Joseph Metzler, who discovered the scene as he began rounds the morning of Monday, March 23. Metzler, a member of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) team, specializes in survival strategies of Oregon Snowy Plover populations among the dunes along the North Spit. Only off-road or four-wheel drive vehicles can access the roads.
That morning, traveling on his ATV, Metzler noticed crows congregating in the area. As he rounded a bend in the road, he came upon the deer carcasses directly in front of him, on the hillside. Metzler agrees that the deer were likely spotlighted.
“As soon as I came around the corner, there they were, and if it had been dark, they would have been standing right in front of my headlights on the hillside,” he said.
Metzler, no stranger to Oregon coast wildlife, has spent his career working with various wildlife agencies. On that day, Metzler saw a side
