Animal later put to sleep as injuries called too extreme
MASSACHUSETTS -- A deer rescued from an icy plunge by specially trained Waltham firefighters had to be put to death today after officials said its muscles were too deteriorated from hours of flailing for its life.
Carried from Cambridge Reservoir in northern Waltham on a stretcher by a team of jakes and Animal Rescue League officials who endangered their own lives to rescue the deer, their efforts were ultimately for naught by the time the creature reached Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in North Grafton, explained school spokeswoman Kim Thurler.
She said by the time the deer reached the clinic it had suffered “a degeneration of the skeletal muscles due to extreme activity apparently because it had been out on the ice or in the water for a number of hours or perhaps all night.”
But the rescue of the deer that garnered so much attention on Cambridge Reservoir was only one of three the Waltham Fire Department responded to this morning.
About 10:20 a.m. firefighters responded to a report of a deer stranded on Stoney Brook in the southern end of Waltham, Fire Lt. Scott Perry said. Fortunately, he said, “They were able to coax it off the ice.”
Almost simultaneously, a call came in at 10:47 a.m. of two deer on Cambridge Reservoir. “We have firefighters trained in ice rescue and they brought pieces of apparatus,” Perry said.
They found the body of a younger deer that appeared to have been attacked by predators.
Authorities believe the animals wandered onto the slick ice where they were stranded for some time.
“It didn’t fall through,” Brian O’Connor, manager of Boston’s Animal Rescue League Animal Rescue Services said of the deer that was rescued on Cambridge Resevoir and was transported to Tufts Wildlife Clinic.
Responders dressed in ice rescue suits used a “pontoon” sled to cross the cracking ice and approached the animal as it “thrashed around,” Connor said. They secured the animal with rope, straps and a canvas bag over its head to “quiet it down so it wouldn’t kick around,” he said.
Perry said firefighters make extraordinary efforts to rescue animals both the head off attempts by untrained and vulnerable civilians who might endanger themselves trying to save a struggling creature and to provide real-world training to keep firefighters skills sharp.
“We’d rather have folks out there who are trained and experienced,” the fire lieutenant said, “and while we are trained to do this, it’s always good to have a life-like situation because each time you do this there’s something different.”
Authorities said the young deer that was found dead was too far out on the ice to get back on its own and likely gave up from exhaustion, leaving itself in a vulnerable state.
“Unfortunately it looked like predators got to it,” said O’Connor. “It could be coyotes, or an eagle. Our best guess is the one deer rescued was the mom.”
Department of Fish and Wildlife and Environmental Police also responded to the call for help for the deer, Perry said.
(Boston Herald - Jan 4, 2013)
