ANDREW
RAGAS

Andrew's Adventures

An Animal Rescue Gone Bad

Thu, November 03, 2011

This is a story that I regret to share with everyone. I don’t like to write about negativity or the things that really bother me. Since late last night I’ve been debating whether to write this because I feel that I am responsible for what happened. In addition, I am a little traumatized for what was witnessed and the consequences that occurred.

If you are an animal rights activist, or a PETA supporter for that matter (I’m not, but I like animals a lot and still eat them), I urge you to leave my blog immediately. Trust me, this is a story you will not want to read about.

And so it goes. . . . .

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Wednesday night, the third of November, was not any different than most other nights I have in the fall. My daily routine nowadays is to work on projects, look for jobs, fix a friggin’ website virus, write stories about fishing if I have the time, and do normal life things during the daytime. Followed by sunset, I’ve been fishing the local rivers almost every night for my customary fall walleyes. If I’m not fishing from 6pm to as late as 10pm, then it’s an abnormal day for me.

Last night I met up with my good friend Frank Weilnhammer (whom I refer to as “Frank Dubya” in case there is any trouble pronouncing his last name). We made arrangements to meet at 6pm at the famed “Andrews River” for a nighttime walleye affair.

Since I was stuck on my exercise bike from 4:30 until 5:30, I couldn’t join Frank until 6. By the time I arrived at our access site, he was already in the water casting away. While I suited up in my waders, I received a text from him in the water stating that in nearly an hour his impatience couldn’t buy a single fish, but that a pair of deer were seen hanging out near him in the water; a nice size buck and his female companion. I jokingly responded that these deer were probably catching more walleyes and doing a much better job in the water than him.

As soon as I suited up, I proceeded to walk the 50 yards on shore towards Frank.

This particular area we were going to fish features a small dam, and an accompanying grist mill that was built in the late 1800’s and now serves as decoration. Its spinning wheel occasionally gets used but only for tour demonstrations as well as aesthetics. To get near the dam, I must follow the sidewalk that leads under a bridge and follows alongside of the grist mill.

I proceeded to follow the walkway. Not paying attention to my surroundings in darkness whatsoever, I made my way past the mill’s turbine when all of a sudden I heard a humongous cannonball and saw a splash in the grates and side channel below.

What the heck?

At first I thought this was a giant school of carp that managed to get trapped and got flustered thanks to my presence. If that was the case, then no big deal. We’d be better off with less invasive species in our waterways anyways. But no. It wasn’t fish.

Holy ^%%#@$!!!! I just spooked a deer and it somehow managed to fall into the turbine below. This deer became disoriented by my presence. Like myself, it did not pay attention to its surroundings either and instead jumped into a trap.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. What were the chances of ever seeing a large animal breach the fencing and fall into the grist mill? One in a million? Something like that.

Unsure of what to do, I wasn’t going to ignore the situation and let the buck struggle. The responsibility to save this animal from turning himself into smashed venison steaks was now on me. I was hoping for a good outcome. I needed to fish, but wanted this animal to be rescued asap. I promptly ran back to the parking lot where there was a bulletin board displaying numbers for the forest preserve district and wildlife police.

I made my phone call:

“Hi, my name is Andrew. I’m at [- - - -] Mill located in [- - - - - - - -] and I encountered a deer that fell into the pool below. Yes, a deer that basically fell into the wheel. Don’t ask me how it happened, but it looks like it’s trapped and struggling.”

The receptionist said someone was on their way. She couldn’t believe it herself.

I went back towards the animal and I called Frank who was nearby in the water. “Dude, a deer fell into the mill. Get outta the water and come see this!”

Frank didn’t understand what I was saying until he met me on land and saw it with his own eyes. A “WTF” type of look was expressed on his face.

Luckily this pool was shallow, and the deer was able to stand while struggling in the water.

Within five minutes the first Forest Preserve officer arrived. He didn’t believe what he was seeing.

Since Frank and I were the only ones who were suited with waders, I suggested to the “wildlife officer” that if he had access to any sedatives we should try to administer them to the deer and once it calmed down Frank and I would jump in and connect the roping and devices while everyone else would pull the animal up. (Unlike officers who wear bullet-proof vests and carry guns, two men in waders were unafraid of this deer and its antlers if it was sedated)

But surely the wildlife officer didn’t listen to our creative ideas. Big mistake.

Minutes later three other FPD’s arrived. Followed by that, six of the town’s police officers, two members of the fire department, and the operators of the mill came to join.

Not a single individual could comprehend what was taking place. Was this really turning into an blown out of proportion situation, and happening?

Now this was turning into a made-for-TV episode of “Animal Cops.”

With nearly a dozen different individuals with various backgrounds joining this rescue unit, not a single person had a concrete plan on how to efficiently and effectively remove the animal from harms way. A few cold-hearted police officers suggested to just shoot the animal and have its head mounted while others such as myself and the conservation officers wanted to get the animal back on land and hope for a good outcome.

At first, it seemed as if we were on track for a good outcome.

The first thing the officers did was try to remove the metal grates that were trapping the deer and preventing us from accessing it. After 30 minutes of hacking it was realized that these barriers were unbreakable.

Next, they tried to use any accessible tools for extracting the deer - such as rope and harnesses.

They tried to lasso the buck around its neck with heavy-duty rope. After 15 minutes of unsuccessfully making contact, they were finally connected to the deer’s neck and in control of its movements. Next, two other officers brought animal control harnesses, the type for catching varmints, rodents, dangerous dogs and rabid cats. They were able to hook one to each antler.

Quickly, the buck turned resistant and became pissed off. Eight officers tried to manually pull up the buck but due to its resistance it was crashing into the wall, the grates, and kicking everything. At one point the deer was violently crashing into the walls and we all thought it was going to break its neck and crack some bones. Due to the stressors this animal was experiencing, clearly this was not the best or most resourceful idea.

After all that pulling and controlling had failed, the mill’s operator brought in an elongated piece of wood to be used as a plank. Next, the officers pulled once again while trying to use the momentum of the deer so it would slide up the plank.

Again, not the best idea in my opinion, but this was working. 15 more minutes finally yielded some results and the deer was finally brought up onto land.

But then all hell broke loose. The buck was entangled in all of the rope and the harnesses. Once it was on land, it grew even more violent by jumping, thrashing, kicking, and trying to bulldoze everyone in its way. A bad situation had now turned even worse.

I’ve seen television shows such as “Animal Cops” and “Game Wardens,” and what I witnessed in comparison was a bunch of amateurs miserably trying to control an animal.

Due to limited resources, none of the officers had any way to untangle the buck from the mess they caused with all of the rope and harnesses tangled around it. By resisting the assistance, the buck was basically choking itself to death thanks to the tight rope that was around its neck, which its profuse kicking and violent thrashing was not helping.

After I took this photo, the officers thanked me and ordered Frank and I to leave the premises and to head off into the direction towards where their vehicles were parked.

By now the officers were clearly debating on whether to actually follow through on their procedure to rescue the animal and to clean up this man-made mess of theirs, and turn a very bad situation into something good, or to simply put it down because they had no other options.

Moments later a deputy came towards the cars and told us to leave the area entirely.

As we began walking past the officers towards our own cars, I didn’t want to look at what was going to happen next. Immediately we heard two gunshots. POW! POW!

These were not the sounds we wanted to hear, and neither was this the outcome I wanted to be a part of.

All of this effort to rescue an animal turned into a two hour long debacle. After successfully pulling out the animal from being trapped, the best law enforcement could do by calling it a night and to control the situation was to shoot it? Really?

All that work for nothing.

What I want to know is how can our local wildlife police and conservation officers NOT have adequate tools and resources for this type of “rescue mission” ?  There were four wildlife police on hand, and it should be noted that the forest preserve district headquarters is a few miles up the road. Therefore access to basically anything is nearby. Not once did they have the thought of sedating the animal like it would be done by any normal “wildlife police”. Neither did they have any creative ideas. For instance, up north on my own lake, I once saw a game warden shoot tranquilizer into a deer laying on our neighbors property so it could be rescued from injury (broken leg). I recall it was done successfully without causing any further injury, and the animal was removed and taken to a shelter in less than ten minutes. Why these officers couldn’t something similar for this type situation is unknown.

Shoot it with a dart / Jump into the pool with waders / Strap it up with the rope and harnesses / Pull the animal up five feet / Then release it in a safer location.

That sounds pretty easy and I’m sure it could have been done. Without being controlled and forcefully lifted, this buck was as docile as can be.

Clearly everyone was unprepared for this.

In my opinion, the handling of this entire situation was unprofessional. I don’t agree with any of these procedures that were done. It was all dumb action with even dumber ideas. This “rescue” should not have taken nearly two hours, and neither should my night of fishing have been wasted. Traumatized afterwards, I didn’t even make a single cast or try to fish. That’s how sickened I felt.

Thanks to me for unknowingly spooking the buck, and to the officers and their half-assed job of an animal rescue, we’re all responsible for what happened last night.

Once the young, vigorous buck fell into the turbine below, I’m sad to say that it pretty much fell to its death.

However, the poor handling I saw and the consequence of shooting it is inexcusable and unacceptable. I hope to never participate in such embarrassment to wildlife ever again.

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