Okanagan residents are used to having deer in their yards, but not with arrows stuck in them.

Lory Johnston was in her back yard in upper town Summerland this weekend when she saw a young buck with a crossbow through its left ear.

It was heartbreaking to see, she said.

She called Conservation who attended and witnessed the deer with the arrow.

“They advised that it appears to be an old wound and he is otherwise healthy. Due to the type and strength of tranquilizers they use, they feel it won’t survive being tranquilized to remove the crossbow,” she said.

Conservation told her it’s best to leave him alone. The tip of the arrow has broken off and hopefully over time the rest of it somehow works its way out, Conservation said.

Over the years, several deer have been spotted walking around Penticton neighbourhoods with arrows in their side or neck.

Recently, a judge fined a 60-year-old Vancouver man who ‘wanted to go home with a buck’ with a five-year hunting ban for shooting two deer with a crossbow while strolling through downtown Princeton in October 2020.

The man shot two mule deer bucks in a residential area near midnight, said RCMP. A witness, concerned about seeing a man walking through town wearing camouflage carrying a crossbow, called it in to the police.

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