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By STEVEN LEMONGELLO, Staff Writer |

The animal popularly known as the "Margate deer" became something of a mascot in the Downbeach area over the last few months, ever since its presence moved from the realm of urban legend to acknowledged fact. As the first deer reported on Absecon Island in decades, it made quite an impact - schoolchildren wrote essays from its point of view, residents left out food in their backyards for it to eat and one even gave it a name: "Bucky."

So the thought that the deer shot to death by police in Atlantic City over the weekend could have been the Margate deer - and while there's no confirmation it was, there's also no confirmation it wasn't - obviously is a heartbreaker.

"The whole neighborhood's in mourning," said Elaine Fogler, of Ventnor, who had named the deer Bucky. "Every time you see someone, they say, ‘Did you hear about the deer?' ... I'm very upset about it."

The Margate deer had been spotted as early as last October, but it was when video was shot of the creature casually making its way through the streets of Margate in April that the deer entered the mainstream.

Michael Karwowski, the building manager at Margate Terrace, said that he hadn't seen the Margate deer in several weeks, though he said someone else told him they saw it as recently as last week.

In any event, a male deer was spotted in the Chelsea Heights area of Atlantic City on Friday morning - across the canal and past the marshes from the Margate deer's old Ventnor/Margate border area stamping grounds.

A deer was spotted again early Saturday morning running through residential yards and playgrounds near the Chelsea Village apartments and the entrance to the Atlantic City Hilton, Atlantic City Police Sgt. Monica McMenamin said in a release Saturday.

It apparently was leaping over six-foot fences as police tried to keep it contained, and officers tried and failed several times to barricade it and even get it into a van.

Sgt. Kien Nhan, the patrol supervisor on shift, had called for a tranquilizer - though the release did not make clear whether a tranquilizer ever got there - but after four hours, the decision was made to shoot it, police said. The deer was brought down with one shot.

"It was a screwed-up situation," Karwowski said. "I wouldn't want them to take care of my pet. ... They should have tranquilized him and taken him off the island instead of shooting him. That was a little inhumane."

Fogler was more circumspect.

"I don't know if something else could have been done, or whether somebody had an itchy trigger finger," Fogler said. "He jumped over a lot of fences between here and there, and nobody felt the need to shoot him. ... But I'll just give whoever shot him the benefit of the doubt."

There also was some discrepancy over whether there was a Fish and Wildlife official on the scene Saturday morning. While the police release states that a Fish and Wildlife official arrived about two hours before the deer was shot, state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Ragonese said there was no record of any of their personnel on scene.

"I'm not going to dispute what they say," Ragonese said. "We just don't have any record of it. I talked to the chiefs of Fish and Wildlife, and they said maybe someone could have arrived off-duty to just advise (police). ... We just can't find anybody to confirm that."

McMenamin could not be reached for comment Monday.

In any event, Ragonese said, "Basic protocol (is) that if it's perceived as any kind of public-safety issue, it's up to the discretion of local authorities. We try to assess what we can, but they do what they have the discretion to do."

As for whether something could have been done in the months beforehand, "We don't have enough personnel around the state to deal with individual deer," Ragonese said. "I think that if it was possible to respond and somehow be able to capture a deer, we could, but just the logistics of (capturing) an individual deer is not easy thing to do."

Fogler said they had been looking forward to the Margate Deer's expected return during the fall season.

"I don't know why he had to head in that direction," Fogler said of Atlantic City, "but I guess he had his reasons."

As for Karwowski, "I'm definitely going to be missing it," he said. "It was something unique on this island. It may be another 50 years before we see something like that again."

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