Video: Anglers Herd Swimming Fawn to Safety
OutdoorHub Reporters 07.12.13
Brett Thompson was celebrating the Fourth of July with a fishing outing in Washington’s Tacoma Narrows when he and his fishing buddy spotted something large in the water. About two-and-a-half miles from shore, they saw a fawn attempting to paddle back to land.
“”I saw what I thought was a log floating by, but it looked kind of different and I thought to myself for a second and I looked and I noticed it had ears,” Thompson told KOMO 4.
Deer very rarely swim so far out in the water and the anglers had no idea why the fawn was there. To its credit, the deer seemed capable of reaching shore, had it not been caught in a strong tide that promised to move her further from land. The anglers held some rope in reserve in case the deer began to drown, and slowly nudged the boat closer to the animal. This allowed the men to essentially herd the swimming deer to shore.
It took about 45 minutes before the deer was able to leave the water and take a rest to dry on the warm sand.
“It was a pretty neat experience, we felt pretty good about it,” Thompson said.
Video of the rescue is available below:
