Rotting Deer Carcass Causing a Stink in West Warwick

Rotting Deer Carcass Causing a Stink in West Warwick

 

Juniper Pond, a small retention pond near an even smaller park off East Greenwich Ave in West Warwick, can be easy to overlook. Located closer to the East Greenwich and Coventry borders than to downtown West Warwick, the pond is more often frequented by ducks and Canada geese than by townsfolk, except for local dogwalkers and fishermen on the lookout for pickerel, bluegills, and the occasional bass.

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Visitors have been in even shorter supply lately, however, due to the overpowering odor of decomposition carried on the wind from a deer carcass which has been floating in the pond for roughly a week, despite numerous calls from local residents to town officials about the stench.

"I first noticed it on August 13," said Eileen Ellis, whose property sits directly next to the pond. "My first thought was, 'Wow, that's an awfully big log.' Then I got a bit closer and was surprised when I realized what it actually was."

Ellis has been even more surprised by the difficulty she has faced in getting someone to remove the deer, which is now in an advanced state of putrefaction.

"The smell comes all the way up to East Greenwich Ave when the wind blows," she explained. "I called DEM, but they told me that they can't do anything because the land belongs to West Warwick. I've tried calling West Warwick Animal Control, the Police, the DPW, and everyone just keeps telling me they can’t do anything about it."

Calls by GoLocal to the West Warwick Department of Public Works had gone unanswered by press time.

State Senator John Burke, who represents West Warwick District 9, said in an email statement that he had "spoken to the town and their answer is to let nature take its course."

 

Residents Seek Recourse

Nature simply isn't moving fast enough to satisfy local residents, however. "This is a two-hundred-pound animal, and it has already been floating there for a week," Ellis said. "It's bloating and full of gas and the smell just keeps getting worse."

State Rep Patricia Serpa of West Warwick District 27 expressed frustration over the decaying deer but seemed uncertain what could be done about it.

In an email to Mark Knott, Town Manager, and Mark Dennison, who represents Ward 5 on the Town Council, Serpa noted that she had been contacted by constituents regarding the "terrible situation," which she called “unacceptable at so many levels."

“If the local animal control officer is unable to respond and remove the deer, I strongly suggest that the town should pay whichever entity that can,” Serpa wrote. “It’s just not my practice to ever tell local town officials how to do their jobs but this must happen immediately. PLEASE."

Serpa’s sentiments were echoed by Dimitri Vourvachakis, who visited Juniper Pond after hearing about the deer on social media.

“I grew up around here and was back in town to visit my mother,” Vourvachakis said. “I noticed a lot of people on Facebook complaining that there was a dead deer floating in the pond and I couldn’t believe that nobody was doing anything about it. I used to come here all the time as a child and my mother still goes by it on her walking route. Who knows what kind of diseases could be getting into the water from this? I mean, it’s a dead animal.”

The buzz on social media has been intense, with many users speculating about what may have caused the deer’s demise. Some have suggested that it may be connected to recent algaecide treatments in the pond, but this seems unlikely.
     

“If this had been caused by the water, you wouldn’t just see one dead deer. There would be dead fish, dead birds, dead tadpoles - a lot more animals would have been affected,” said James Lacasse of Water & Wetland, the company that treated the water. He indicated that the algaecide products used by the company are all EPA-certified and have never been known to cause wildlife fatalities.

Most residents in the area seem to agree. “I have no problem with the treatments and I know it took a lot of people in the community complaining to the town about the algae before they finally sent someone out to keep this from turning into a complete swamp,” Ellis said.

Ironically, allowing the deer to decompose may undo the expensive work that the town has funded to eliminate the algae. According to information from Kentucky State University, large animals like deer can release massive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus as they decompose, causing algae blooms in a process known as eutrophication.

“It’s irresponsible, really,” Ellis said. “It’s just really irresponsible to leave this poor animal floating there while the neighborhood starts to stink.”