Hailsham Roe Deer Rescue

After a week of calls about a deer running around Hailsham, East Sussex WRAS rescuers finally managed to track the deer down to the old Hailsham Ambulance Station off London Road. All week WRAS has been receiving calls about a small / young / baby deer running around South Road, Meadow Road, Summerheath Road, Beuzeville Ave Hailsham, coming close to being run over or near accidents. Although deer in residential areas is not uncommon and would not always warrant a relocation, this deer was clearly having problems and causing a danger to traffic.

The deer was finally spotted at lunch time on Wednesday in the old car park at the back of the Ambulance Station. Rescuer Mark Harris attended on site and used WRAS's Ambulance to block off the access road confining the deer to the back of the building. He then called in reinforcements, and two more veterinary ambulances attended, one from WRAS's Centre at Whitesmith and once from Barcombe. Rescuer Kathy Martyn, Holly Davis, Julie Stafford and Trevor Weeks joined Mark at the site and checked the area to form a plan of approach.

As with any such rescue it is important to plan the outcome before you even start the rescue. Rescuer reviewed the reports of where the deer had been seen through the week and pattern emerged showing the deer probably entered Hailsham from the southwest. So rescuers chose a release site at Abbotts Wood just the other side of the A22. Sedating Deer in these situation is difficult and problematic and can cause issued on release, so a live capture was necessary. Meaning rescuers only had a 30 minute window to release the deer once caught or the deer could suffer a fatal heart attack.

At a narrow point in the car park a walk-to-wards net was strung across the car park held by Julie and Mark as a full back position in case the deer managed to get past the first line of attack. Holy, Trevor and Kathy then made their approach to the deer which charged at Kathy and Trevor's net, the deer managed to slip past them and run into the second net where it quickly became entangled and rescuers were able to secure the deer.

A stretcher was brought in and the deer lifted onto it and then loaded into the back of WRAS's transit ambulance and driven straight to the release site. Once far enough away from the road, rescuers released the deer in a controlled manager where it was able to run off into the forest to recover from its ordeal. Reg Charity 1108880 www.wildlifeambulance.org

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