A deer in Sioux City somehow got its antlers stuck in hammock tied between two trees behind a house. Police and animal control were called to try and untangle the creature’s antlers from the mesh as it was hopelessly stuck.
Officer Mike Koehler says when he arrived, he saw the deer had minor injuries. “The buck was about an eight-point buck, it was a mature deer and it was a pretty strong animal,” Koehler says. “The big thing was, when I approached with my trainee, I told him to be careful because the deer has antlers that can be used as weapons and also the hooves are very dangerous and he’s full of adrenaline and he’s going to be scared.”
Koehler came up with a plan to set it free by cutting the ropes with his knife. With the deer thrashing around, they couldn’t get too close, but managed to eventually trim off most of the mesh and set it loose. “The buck was free,” Koehler says. “It was able to run off. I’m sure it was tired. I’m sure it was scared. It did have a big tangle of netting from the hammock in its antlers, but we’re thinking those are gonna fall off here when the bucks shed their antlers here in late January and early February, so hopefully he made it.”
Officer Cade Gill also responded to the call to help the struggling animal. “It’s definitely one of the most unusual ones for me that I’ve ever responded to, particularly when it concerns an animal like a deer,” Gill says. “It was pretty exciting. It felt good after the fact, knowing that we had gotten there and were able to rescue that deer.”
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)