Oh dear!
Halloween is around the corner, but festivities have occurred since last weekend as trick-or-treaters and bar hoppers dressed up to take the town. While many participating in Halloween activities finish their nights at home tucked into bed (or if your little ones overindulged, you might be trying to wrestle them in bed), for the deer in an Ohio neighborhood, their nights end with a terrifying twist.
As children in the neighborhood run from house to house collecting candy, some of their trick-or-treating buckets have fallen out of their hands as they romp around, or parents might leave them on the front porch as decoration. While it seems harmless, when wildlife come out of the woods to take a curious peek at what might be inside of those buckets, deer are finding themselves in a boobie trap.
The handles on Halloween buckets slide over the back of the deer’s head, causing the bucket to get stuck. This led the Ohio neighborhood to release a statement begging residents to remove the handle from these buckets.
“HAZARD TO WILDLIFE! WPD has responded to several calls of deer with plastic decorative pumpkins stuck on their faces over the last few days. These are pics taken by our officers as they tried to get close enough to the wildlife to give them a hand. (Yes! We respond to all calls where a WPD employee may be able to help the community).”
The post shows many deer running around the Westlake, Ohio, community, hardly able to see as the bucket is securely stuck on their heads. One can only imagine how terrifying it is for the deer, and given that these animals are skittish to begin with, approaching them to remove the hazard is even more challenging.
“The deer, of course, want nothing to do with officers approaching them. Please check your yards for these hazards and at least remove the plastic handle, which tends to wrap around the deer’s head, causing the issue.”
The community members quickly filled in the comments, noting that specific deer in the images had figured out how to remove the buckets from their heads. However, they continued to urge the rest of the community to remove the handle from the decorative trick-or-treat buckets.
Other wildlife advocates were in the comments, urging residents to consider the decorative spiderwebs many folks hang in their front yards, too.
“The same goes for fake spider webs in yards; they’re also a huge hazard to wildlife.”
“This happens a lot. People need to keep these plastic pumpkins out of the yards where deer are curious and look for food.”
“Poor babies. I hope they can get them off.”
While those seem like they would cause less damage, this post reminds us that we share this earth with many other species and should consider what might harm them when decorating our homes and yards.
If you have already celebrated Halloween this year, remember this tip for next year so your night of fun and fight does not end in horror for your local wildlife.
Happy haunting, folks.
