At first, Sonia Nayar was struck by the smell. Then, the flies, as her cavapoo Rocky ran toward a plastic bag near the walking trail by her home.
She got closer and noticed an ear and some hair sticking out. And part of a head.
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It didn’t look like any of the animals she was used to seeing — deer, dogs — and thought it could be a bear, asking herself: “But why would a bear be in a bag?”
It turns out, Nayar had stumbled upon a dead 100-pound black bear at about 4:30 p.m. on Friday that would become the talk of the town. Nayar, who was with her 12-year-old son, took a couple of photos and posted them on NextDoor, getting 150 reactions and more than 40 comments. The Arlington artist called police, and soon, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources opened an investigation.
Arlington police were dispatched to the 2100 block of 21st Road North at 5:23 p.m. Friday, said police spokeswoman Ashley Savage. By Monday afternoon, Webber, a construction company with which the Virginia Department of Transportation has a five year, $23.5 million contract, took responsibility.
“A mistake was made,” a Webber spokesperson said in a statement to The Washington Post.
The Webber contract workers were called on May 29 to pick up a bear that was killed after being struck by a vehicle on I-66 in Prince William County, said Chelsea Jones, an Animal Welfare League of Arlington spokeswoman. Then, the contractors brought the bear to Arlington, where they “illegally dumped the bear over an overpass onto the Custis Memorial Trail,” Jones said.
That’s where Nayar and officials found it, with “a significant amount of decomposition happening,” Jones said.
The Animal Welfare League of Arlington is working with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources “to determine if charges will be filed for this egregious behavior,” Jones said.
The Webber spokesperson did not respond to questions related to the number of workers involved or any disciplinary actions, but said the company will work with VDOT to make sure its employees “receive the retraining they may need.”
Following the incident, several NextDoor users expressed their horror that anyone would dispose of an animal this way. They shared updates from the Animal Welfare League of Arlington on the platform. And they were skeptical of officials’ statements about what unfolded.
“Doesn’t add up,” one user wrote.
If the workers had followed protocols, they would have taken the dead bear to a specific Prince William County landfill for disposing of deceased animals, said Ellen Kamilakis, a VDOT spokeswoman. It is not clear why the workers instead chose this Arlington trail.
“Obviously throwing [a bear] off an embankment of an overpass is not at all standard operating procedure,” Kamilakis said.
This was the first dead bear Jones had encountered in her eight years of working at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington. The discovery had seemed off to Nayar on Friday, too. She called authorities before she even got home.
It was such an unusual situation that when police arrived, Nayar recalled saying to them: “I hope I didn’t make you come here for a bag of mulch.”
Now that she has heard more about the circumstances, Nayar hopes it inspires people to learn more about the wildlife in the area.
“We need to be grateful for the biodiversity we have here and we need to respect and protect our animals. I was impressed by the amount of people who showed that they care,” Nayar said. “Now that this happened, maybe we shouldn’t let the same thing happen again.”
She got closer and noticed an ear and some hair sticking out. And part of a head.
Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.
It didn’t look like any of the animals she was used to seeing — deer, dogs — and thought it could be a bear, asking herself: “But why would a bear be in a bag?”
It turns out, Nayar had stumbled upon a dead 100-pound black bear at about 4:30 p.m. on Friday that would become the talk of the town. Nayar, who was with her 12-year-old son, took a couple of photos and posted them on NextDoor, getting 150 reactions and more than 40 comments. The Arlington artist called police, and soon, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources opened an investigation.
Arlington police were dispatched to the 2100 block of 21st Road North at 5:23 p.m. Friday, said police spokeswoman Ashley Savage. By Monday afternoon, Webber, a construction company with which the Virginia Department of Transportation has a five year, $23.5 million contract, took responsibility.
“A mistake was made,” a Webber spokesperson said in a statement to The Washington Post.
The Webber contract workers were called on May 29 to pick up a bear that was killed after being struck by a vehicle on I-66 in Prince William County, said Chelsea Jones, an Animal Welfare League of Arlington spokeswoman. Then, the contractors brought the bear to Arlington, where they “illegally dumped the bear over an overpass onto the Custis Memorial Trail,” Jones said.
That’s where Nayar and officials found it, with “a significant amount of decomposition happening,” Jones said.
The Animal Welfare League of Arlington is working with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources “to determine if charges will be filed for this egregious behavior,” Jones said.
The Webber spokesperson did not respond to questions related to the number of workers involved or any disciplinary actions, but said the company will work with VDOT to make sure its employees “receive the retraining they may need.”
Following the incident, several NextDoor users expressed their horror that anyone would dispose of an animal this way. They shared updates from the Animal Welfare League of Arlington on the platform. And they were skeptical of officials’ statements about what unfolded.
“Doesn’t add up,” one user wrote.
If the workers had followed protocols, they would have taken the dead bear to a specific Prince William County landfill for disposing of deceased animals, said Ellen Kamilakis, a VDOT spokeswoman. It is not clear why the workers instead chose this Arlington trail.
“Obviously throwing [a bear] off an embankment of an overpass is not at all standard operating procedure,” Kamilakis said.
This was the first dead bear Jones had encountered in her eight years of working at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington. The discovery had seemed off to Nayar on Friday, too. She called authorities before she even got home.
It was such an unusual situation that when police arrived, Nayar recalled saying to them: “I hope I didn’t make you come here for a bag of mulch.”
Now that she has heard more about the circumstances, Nayar hopes it inspires people to learn more about the wildlife in the area.
“We need to be grateful for the biodiversity we have here and we need to respect and protect our animals. I was impressed by the amount of people who showed that they care,” Nayar said. “Now that this happened, maybe we shouldn’t let the same thing happen again.”
