Government staff have removed radio collars from three deer in a Saint-Quentin, N.B., deer yard, but a local resident who took video of an animal with skin rubbed raw by one of the devices says that deer is still wearing its collar.
Pictures began appearing on social media March 17 showing a deer with a radio collar that had skin rubbed raw and an abrasion on the neck.
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Jason Carter, a Charlo, N.B., resident became alarmed after seeing the pictures on Facebook and went to see it for himself. While there, he took a video of the same deer.
"It didn't look like it was particularly good for the animal," said Carter of the exposed raw skin.
Radio collars on deer cause abrasions1:18
Carter began calling government offices Monday trying to find out whether the deer's health was being negatively affected.
"It's something you can't look away from if you are the type of person I am," Carter said. "It's hard to look sideways from."
Research project
Energy and Resource Development staff said the radio collars were put on the animals as part of a three-year research project that "collects information on the habits, habitat use and survival of deer."
Department spokesperson Anne Bull said via email that the University of New Brunswick launched the project in 2016 in cooperation with the New Brunswick Department of Energy and Resource Development, J.D. Irving Ltd., the University of Maine and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Luc Gagnon, a biologist with Energy and Resource Development, says once the radio collar is removed from an affected deer, there will be no long-term effect on its health. (Serge Bouchard/Radio Canada)
Regional biologist Luc Gagnon said the project is to monitor deer population movements in response to forestry operations.
"We have been entrusted to find out what type of habitat the deer will prefer to choose based on what's available and also on reacting to the different types of silviculture treatments in the forest and also what their survival rates are," he said.
Gagnon said the radio collars allow researchers to follow the deer on a day-to-day basis and are designed to automatically fall off after three years.
Back again
Carter said he was told by the two ERD staff that were at the deer yard they didn't remove a collar from the deer pictured in his video but they planned to return Wednesday to locate it and do so.
Jason Carter says he was concerned when he saw what the radio collar had done to the deer and went looking for answers. (Serge Bouchard/Radio Canada)
"They were kind enough to show me pictures of the three deer they did remove the collars from," he said.
Bull confirmed that three collars were removed Tuesday.
Carter said he's hoping the government will have a veterinarian at the site to make sure the deer that appeared to be affected the most by the radio collar can be checked out while it's tranquilized.
No threat to health
Bull wrote that veterinarians have determined that the small amount of hair loss that may occur on some deer due to the collar poses no health threat, but if significant abrasion is evident, the collar may be removed at the discretion of ERD staff.
Gagnon said it is rare for the radio collars to affect the deer, but it has happened before and the collars were removed.
Concerns about the radio collars placed on deer for a research project were raised after pictures were posted on social media. (Annie Therio Danny Savoie/Facebook)
After the collars are removed, Gagnon said ointment is applied to the injury to aid in healing and an orange tag is placed in the deer's ear. He added the deer they removed collars from last year have been seen this winter in "perfect health," with the hair fully regrown on their necks.
Bull said people are encouraged to report any unusual circumstances or behaviour of a deer that has a radio collar on it so it can be investigated further by local ERD staff.
