Elk NetworkDeer Rescued from Tangled Electric Fencing

General | January 10, 2020

Imaging trying to make your way through a dense forest while dragging about 200 feet of fencing attached to you. That is exactly what a deer dealt with in southwest Washington. It happened near Washougal, approximately 15 miles north and east of Portland, Oregon.

Two members of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) answered a call from a landowner who saw the buck with wire tangled in its antlers. It apparently got that way after coming in contact with a 4-foot tall electric fence surrounding a vegetable garden. It then ran across a field, dragging about 200 feet of wiring behind it and getting severely entangled in a number of trees and shrubs.

The WDFW workers sedated the deer with a tranquilizer gun and then removed several points off the antlers in order to remove the wiring. After attaching a small, yellow ear tag and applying reversal drugs, the buck came to and ran off.

(Photo source: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)