Residents of Sunny Corner, N.B. say they have seen lots of dead or injured deer in their backyards, which stretch along the Northwest Miramichi River.

“Poor things, they’re trying to get back up again and they’re alive, but some of them are frozen right into the ice and there’s not much you can do,” says Sunny Corner resident Bill Mullin.

Deer are attempting to cross the river over thin ice, to a deer yard where they spend much of the winter, but not many are making it to the other side, either falling through the ice, or slipping and splaying their legs.

“When they splice, their legs go to the sides and do a lot of internal damage, and they can no longer walk after that. There’s nothing we can do for them, even if we get them ashore, there’s so much damage done that there’s nothing we can do, we have to dispose of them,” says Eric Sullivan, from the New Brunswick Department of Energy and Resource Development.

While most residents say it’s a sad fact of nature, it’s not a sight they like to live with. Sullivan says his department has received 15 to 20 calls about the deer in the past two days.

“Seeing them from their front windows every day, sitting out there alive and not able to move, they’ll either die of starvation or coyotes will get them or freeze to death. Who wants to see that? Who wants to look out their window and see that every day?” says Sunny Corner resident Ronnie Ward.

Though it is illegal, some locals have put down the animals by shooting from the shore, while DNR officers use a pontoon sled to minimize risk.

Three more deer were put down this morning, though one was saved and taken to shore.

“A deer is a nice animal, pretty too. It’s really too bad,” says Bill Mullin.

With every cold snap, residents are hoping for thicker ice, but they know they could be back in the same situation come spring.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Cami Kepke