Dramatic Deer Rescue Buxted

 

The moments a deer was rescued and released have been caught on camera by the rescue team undertaking the rescue in a field just behind houses in Buxted East Sussex this morning.

Rescuers from East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service (WRAS) were called out after a resident of Buxted Court noticed the deer from his window up on the bank of a wooden stream opposite. The deer was thrashing around with rope attached to its antlers. It had already pulled several posts out of the ground but could not get free.  Rescuers arrived on scene and had to negotiate the wooden bank, stream and barbed wire fence in order to get to the deer.

Rescuers Daryl Farmer from Forest Row, Chris Riddington from Eastbourne and Trevor Weeks MBE from Uckfield used a specialist net called a walk-to-wards nets to restrict the movement and gain better control over the deer, before rescuer Trevor Weeks was able to grab hold of the rear legs of the deer in order to pull the deer to the floor. Rescuer Chris was then able to cover the deer’s head and climb onto the shoulders of the deer to help pin the deer to the floor and control its antlers whilst Daryl use specialist cutters to remove the rope.

“There was a lot of rope around the antlers, and this electric rope is not easy to remove due to the strands of wire which run through it. These rescues always get your adrenalin running as you know you have to get them cut free as quickly as possible or you could cause them to have a heart attack. You can’t sedate them or you would have problems releasing them quickly” said Daryl.

“The biggest fear when dealing with any deer like this is that you will either get kicked or hit in the face by an antler” said Trevor, “every situation is different and there are different obstacles in the way each time, like on this occasion the fence post and tree branch which make it harder to gain control the deer. We have quite a bit of experienced in dealing with these situations now and you have to think on your feet and act accordingly.”

“Despite this deer not being fully grown, they are still not easy to control. I could feel the deer breathing under my leg, and sense how stressed it was, but it was comforting to know that the deer was only minutes away from being freed” said Chris.

Rescuers knew that they had to be quick in rescuing the deer or it could have a heart attack and die. The rescuers worked rapidly for about 8 minutes cutting the rope away and disentangling and removing the rescue net. They were then able to undertake a controlled release of the deer. “You need to keep your guard up throughout the entire rescue, and just because it’s the release you can’t let your guard drop. This is when you could easily still get kicked or hit by an antler, or the deer could fall or slip as its tries to get up and steady itself, so you need to be prepared” said Trevor.

"It was so good to see the deer run off. It was clearly tired and struggled to jump clearly over the fence, but after being stuck there for most of the night I’m not surprised. Hopefully the deer will now find a nice quiet and peaceful area where it can calm down and recover” said Chris.

-END-

VIDEO:

The above video is for use by local media to East Sussex only, like BBC News, Merdian News and local radio and newspapers. For all other use please contact Trevor Weeks on 01825-873003.

There are two version of the video:

This is the public version on our Facebook and You Tube account: https://youtu.be/CO7gkTvhSs8

This is the unedited version without logos, text and music for editing by media: https://youtu.be/-b39k6IEu5A

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