Investigation continues after deer poached at Louisville Nature Center

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources continues to investigate after the carcass of an illegally poached deer was found at the Louisville Nature Center Monday.

Louisville Nature Center Executive Director Rebecca Minnick said neighbors found the buck Monday evening at Beargrass Creek State Nature Preserve. According to witness statements, the deer had been walking towards their condos when they saw it fall.

“Several neighbors saw the deer and several neighbors saw the guy drag it into his truck,” she said. “It’s illegal to hunt on a Kentucky state nature preserve. It’s illegal to hunt in a public park. It’s also illegal to bait deer on public lands.”

Employees from the center immediately notified Fish & Wildlife before walking the area Tuesday, and later found a bait pile with salt blocks and feed. They also found crossbow arrows similar to ones they believe were used to kill the buck and a blood trail.

“Several laws were broken and Fish & Wildlife takes this very seriously, as do we,” Minnick said. “It’s a very densely populated area so … our biggest concern is that someone was firing a weapon and in my opinion, that was quite reckless to do in an area that’s so heavily used by so many people.”

She continued, saying Louisville is “lucky to have some wonderful green spaces as a community we need to support and take care of them.”

“We work hard to maintain this forest, to keep the forest healthy, to keep the wildlife population healthy and to keep it safe for the community and we take any criminal activity very seriously,” she said. “Anything that endangers our visitors, we won’t tolerate.”

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The Louisville Nature Center is working with Fish & Wildlife to investigate the incident. Anyone with further information is encouraged to reach out to the agency by calling their law violation tip line at 1-800-252-5378, texting them at 847411 with “KFWLAW” in the message body or submitting a report through the KFWLaw app.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: State officials continue investigation into poached deer in Louisville