Neighbours Rescue Frozen Deer From Ice

Occurred on February 7, 2023 / Gananoque, Ontario, Canada

Info from Licensor: "That morning around 10:30 am I was walking my dog. I saw from afar an animal that had gone through the ice to frozen water. There were some neighbours looking as well, and I said we have to rescue the baby moose (that is what I thought it was from far away). Neighbours told me that they have already called the right channels and that they were sending professional rescuers. I went back home. Around 1:30 pm, I decided to go ice fishing. When I was already set up to start fishing, I noticed that the baby moose was still in the frigid water and moving, no rescue had come. So, from the ice, I called the wild animal shelter in Napanee, ON but they said they didn’t have any volunteers to come for the rescue. I decided to rescue the poor animal myself. I couldn’t go to bed thinking that this baby was still moving and nobody did anything to help him. The animal shelter called me back to let me know that there was a neighbour willing to help me. We walked through the ice, but close to the edge was thin, so we got our feet wet. Then I put my phone on the tree to record the rescue mission. We realized it was not a baby moose but a grown-up deer. After that, this neighbour and I were extremely cold because we got so wet. We left the deer safe on the snow after trying to dry him with my sweatshirt. I walked home. By that time, my boyfriend was home from work, so I put on dry clothing and we took our ice fishing sled and blanket back on the ice. We put the deer on the sled to take him to a shelter where he could be treated for hypothermia. The lower part of his body was frozen."