Deer Head Spotted in Exley Parking Lot

“I saw some deer on Indian Hill recently. They were cute…and had their heads on.” —Laura Werle ’15

Here’s some weird news for you late night workers: This time yesterday, a deer head (no body) was spotted in the parking lot behind Exley. This isn’t the first time a deer head was spotted around Exley. In fact, on December 5, 2012, EXACTLY TWO YEARS AGO (!!!!??) a deer head was found at the bottom of the stop sign outside of Exley.

The 2012 deer head, however, was taxidermic (the origins weren’t found), whereas this one was apparently fresh. We don’t have any pictures (thank goodness…I’d forgotten how cute deer are until I googled the image above), but it really did happen!

Jed Siebert ’16, who witnessed the deer head, explains the scene:

I actually saw it in the parking lot behind Exley last night at around 11:30. I wasn’t quite sure what it was at first, so I moved in for a closer look. Upon closer examination, it was very clearly a deer head. I had a friend with me too, but she was fairly squeamish about it, and decided to not go any closer. I felt pretty uneasy, very confused, and a little scared. I didn’t want to touch it or anything, so I can’t confirm if it was taxidermic (taxidermal?). Though, the way it was deformed, and the fleshy color of the part that would have been the neck makes me think it was not taxidermic. I didn’t take any pictures because my phone had died, unfortunately, but it looked very real.

When asked if the deer head was in a bag or not, Siebert said it was “just a straight up deer head.”

Director of Public Safety Scott Rohde confirmed the deer head sighting. An officer patrolling the area noticed the deer head at 12:37 a.m. The “antlers were removed, so it would’ve been a male deer,” and the incident was then reported to the Middletown Police and the head was disposed. Rohde confirms that “it was a real deer head,” and suspects this could’ve been because “sometimes hunters choose to not properly dispose of the deer carcass and end up throwing it in the woods or dumping it illegally in a dumpster.” In this case, a university parking lot.

“Someone will drag the head off with the intention of mounting it,” Rohde said, “but how it got there, who knows?”

The deer head was probably in the lot for just a couple hours before it was disposed of by Public Safety. If anyone has any additional information about it, or any other such sad animal sightings, please let us know.

Additional Reading:
[Wesleying] Spotted: Deer Head on a Stop Sign
[Wesleying] Ding Dong, the Deer is Dead