Problems with whitetail deer in Weyburn and area have continued this past week, with a buck being shot after it was trapped in the back of a downtown business on Monday morning.

The new deer hunting season in the Weyburn area opened the morning of the incident, in which a city police officer had to put the deer down after it unsuccessfully tried to escape from the back porch area of Jordan's Beauty Salon.

Dwayne Hoffman was shovelling snow behind his office on Third Street around 8 a.m., when he startled the deer coming up the alleyway.

"It ran towards the corner at the hairdresser's place, and I heard a window crash as it went through a window. It got caught in the porch area, and it was trying to get out on its own," said Hoffman.

The police were called, and they moved in after calling a conservation officer. Due to the start of the hunting season, the conservation officer was not immediately available, but did come and remove the deer's carcass later.

Police Chief Bill Millar said they have received several calls recently about deer. Most of the calls are referred to conservation officers, unless it's a situation like this one where immediate action was needed.

Another deer had to be put down on Tuesday morning after it was hit by a vehicle at Queen Street and First Avenue, causing a fair amount of vehicle damage.

Another business, Fradette and Dreis Chartered Accountants on Souris Avenue, had a deer break out a double-pane of glass on Thursday morning.

"The deer was running down the sidewalk, and there's an indentation where our front door is. It must have thought this was the corner of our building, and it ran into the window and one of its legs came through," said Dale Dreis.

There were people in the office when the incident occurred around 9:30 a.m., but no one inside was hurt. Dreis didn't think the deer was hurt in the incident either, as no blood was seen on the animal. He said he and his staff have seen a number of deer at various times in the downtown area in the last while.

Residents are also dealing with large numbers of deer in the northwest corner of the city; they have become a large problem in Radville as well, where deer numbers are estimated between 150 and 200.

Radville has a wooded area of town that has traditionally been available to bow hunters, and tags are available at the town office again this year. Meanwhile, the deer have begun to cause damage to people's trees and shrubs in town, said a spokesperson in the town office, and a few have been hit on the roads coming into town.

In Weyburn, a number of residents have become used to seeing deer bed down in their back alley and yard areas, including Sonya Potyra on Elgin Street.

Since she has a dog in her yard, the deer haven't come in, but they bed down on the border of her yard near the fence line, she said.

"Some of our trees blew down when we had that first snow storm, the wildlife officers said we should leave them there so the deer can eat those instead of other trees," she said, adding they haven't had very much damage from deer yet.

On neighbouring Scott Crescent, Jim Brown said he's seen quite a few animals in the area eating trees and coming into yards.

"We saw 20 at one time, and there were four or five on my lawn a few days ago. Some people are putting out blankets or wrappings around their trees, and some people have been putting straw and food out at Souris Valley to keep them out there," said Brown.

Margaret Lackey, also a resident on Scott Crescent, said she's seen deer come right up close to the house, and has seen some damage in her yard.

"I opened the back door the other day and there was a deer between the garage and the house," she said, adding she had planted some new trees this year behind her garage but they're all gone now.

"Lots of times late at night they walk two and three at a time down the middle of the street. They're pretty brave," said Lackey. She hasn't seen the deer this bad in the city since the winter of 1946, she added, as deer couldn't find enough food that year either.