The only thing worse than being on thin ice is falling right through it. A deer in Owatonna, Minnesota was dealing with that exact issue, but luckily for it, the local fire department was ready to burst into action and help.
Many Minnesota agencies have issued thin ice warnings (and banned vehicles from driving on lakers) as the winter season warms up, and the state has had a warmer winter in general. Knowing that those warnings might be ignored, many departments have been prepared for rescues.
There’s no way that this deer would have known about the thin ice warnings, which is why it fell into a icy body of water and needed to be rescued. Someone that spotted the deer struggling in the frigid water called the authorities, and they quickly responded.
The video below picks up with a firefighter in a waterproof rescue suit swimming out to the deer, who is frantically treading the icy water.
With the deer clearly struggling to stay afloat, time was of the essence for the rescue team. The firefighter got out to the deer as fast they could, and was then able to push the deer up onto the solid ice that remained.
Exhausted and scared, the doe laid down on the solid ice right next to the opening in the water that it fell through. Those that responded to the scene were able to assess the deer, and concluded that it wasn’t injured, but was just cold and still in shock from the traumatic experience.
Firefighters encouraged the deer to get up off the ice and return back to the woods, but it wasn’t moving all that much. So the man in the water climbed up onto the thin ice with the frightened deer and pushed it closer to shore.
Eventually, the deer was able to gather itself, stand up on the slippery ice, and walk back onto solid ground. The harrowing rescue that saved the deer’s life can be viewed in the footage below:
