Deer in distress killed by environmental police in Lakeville
LAKEVILLE — Last week, state Environmental Police Officers searched Lakeville for a deer with its head trapped inside of a plastic barrel, and officers later found and killed the deer.
After receiving a call from a resident about the entrapped deer in the Haskell Circle area of Lakeville on Saturday, March 28, Animal Control Officer David Frates said searches were underway to find it. On Friday, April 3, an environmental police officer shot and killed the animal.
It is not clear why the deer was killed instead of tranquilized and freed from the container. The Massachusetts Environmental Police did not comment on why the animal was shot.
Lakeville resident Greg McEvoy first reported the distressed deer to Lakeville police and animal control, and called officers to assist the animal on Friday. McEvoy alerted environmental police he spotted the deer, with a plastic container still on its head, in a cranberry bog near his residence.
“[The officer] climbed a small hill and after 30 or 40 seconds, I heard the shot. Sadly, it wasn't from a tranquilizer gun, it was a shotgun,” McEvoy wrote to the Nemasket Week.











