COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah — One woman has had to wait days for a dead deer to be picked up in her yard, given a high number of big-game-related calls to the Division of Wildlife Resources.
“It’s not pleasant to look at or to smell. But I mean, it hurts my heart,” said Rene Lord, who stumbled upon the carcass in her Cottonwood Heights yard Wednesday.
“You can see it’s a skeleton with the head,” she said, “And the insides are right there.”
When she called to have it removed, she was shocked to hear she was put on a waitlist.
“I thought, 'Well... if it’s not removed, cougars are going to come.' The next day, the cougar had come. So I think a lot of wildcats are out right now,” she said.
Chad Wilson with the Division of Wildlife Resources said it’s been a busy winter with the historic snowpack.
“When we have these types of winters, it does push the animals down lower in search of food, search of getting out of the deep snow. So we've definitely seen this winter a lot, lot more animals, a lot lower down than usual,” he said.
Wilson, who works as a public wildlife and private lands coordinator, said they find these dead animals in neighborhoods when they are either hit by cars or attacked by big cats.
“We're inundated with calls, and not just, not just the roadkill, but other calls that we're busy spending our time on, and we'll do our best to get to them as fast as we can,” said Wilson.
Lord said she understands the division is busy and they usually don’t have a high demand like this.
But she also said it’s not the greatest sight on display for the neighborhood.
“I love all our snow. I’m happy about it. We really need it. But I hate to see collateral damage or whatever it is,” she said.
Wilson added that it’s a good reminder for people to drive slowly and keep an eye out for big game on the roads this spring.
