What looks like a fancy necklace has been a burden for the poor animal for years …
For two years a deer ran through the wilderness of Colorado (USA) with a huge car tire around its neck. Now he could be freed from it.
The four-year-old, 270-pound bull was spotted and anesthetized on Saturday night near Pine Junction, southwest of Denver, Colorado. In order to free the animal from its burden, the five-pointed antlers had to be cut off.
“We would have preferred to cut the tire and leave the antlers for the rutting season, but the situation was so dire that we had to somehow remove it,” said Scott Murdoch of Colorado Park and Wildlife.
Murdoch and colleague Dawson Swanson estimate that by removing the tire and antlers, the animal now weighs about 16 kilograms less.
Game rangers first spotted the deer with the hoop around its neck in July 2019 when they were conducting a sheep and mountain goat survey in the Mount Evans Wilderness.
And the tire is not the first obstacle of its kind. They have seen time and again how deer, elk, bears and other wild animals get caught in a number of objects. These include swings, hammocks, clotheslines, decorative or Christmas lights, furniture, cages, laundry baskets, soccer goals and volleyball nets.