People in the northwest Calgary community of Tuscany came together on Thursday to try to save an injured deer that was stranded on a frozen pond.
The ordeal started at around 8 a.m. when the deer was first spotted by a passing resident.
People speculated it might have been hit by a vehicle on the nearby, busy Nose Hill Drive. The deer then somehow ended up on the frozen pond.
“The deer was up to her shoulders in snow,” said a woman who saw the animal.
Residents rallied with rope and other items, hoping to pull it away with a do-it-yourself rescue, but the animal was too badly hurt.
A woman who runs a farm animal rescue near Balzac heard about and went to help. She ended up holding the deer in her arms in a blanket to comfort it until fire, police and wildlife officers arrived to deal with the situation.
“Her leg was broken and the only thing we could do was try to not have her stress out,” Janneane Madill said.
“We put the blanket around her and she moved right into my chest area and she just kind of held herself there for a while.”
The Calgary Fire Department’s water rescue team arrived and asked the people to get off the ice for their own safety.
“People really put themselves at risk if they venture out onto the ice,” Carol Henke with the fire department said.
“If you see an animal in distress out on the ice — be it a wild animal or a dog — call 911 because we have all the appropriate rescue equipment. People’s safety has to be the number one concern.”
After a lot of struggling, and the eventual intervention by emergency officials, a provincial wildlife officer had to put the animal down.