Sept. 2 (UPI) — Sheriff’s deputies and an animal rehabilitator came to the rescue of a deer found with its antlers entangled in a rope swing behind an Illinois home.
Lake County sheriff’s Deputies Tommy Flores and Ann Mock responded to a Barrington home where the residents reported a buck had gotten its large rack of antlers entangled in a backyard rope swing.
Flores said the 160-pound animal was thrashing dangerously while trying to free itself.
“I didn’t get too close,” Flores told the Daily Herald. “We have tools to deal with all types of situation, but not for this.”
The deputies summoned Dawn Keller, founder and director of Barrington-based Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation.
Keller carefully approached the deer and administered an anesthetic to keep it calm.
“His adrenaline was so pumped that it took us three rounds of anesthetic to get him groggy,” Keller said in a post on the wildlife rehabilitation group’s Facebook page.
Keller said she was able to remove the rope about two hours after being summoned to the scene. She used a portable foam cot as a barrier between the buck’s antlers and her body.
Keller administered a counter to the anesthetic and said the deer appeared healthy when it left the scene.
“He stood up and basically trotted away. I feel hopeful,” she said.