A nephew of one of the Cowboy State News Network’s administrators recently sent us a video of two buck deer locked together. This happens more often than you’d think out in the wilds, though usually they somehow manage to get themselves unlocked before both of them are so worn out they can’t move. When they aren’t able to free themselves, though, they can’t eat or drink, and they die a miserable death.
While these two bucks would have been more fortunate if they’d never gotten locked together in the first place, they at least had the good luck to get locked up right on the side of a county road. If they’d been farther off the road, Kiernan would never have seen them. But he did see them, and he called a friend to help him get the deer unhooked from each other.
One of the deer was already nearly spent, but the other still had some energy. A situation like that can be dangerous. Deer are incredibly strong for their size, and their hooves are extremely sharp. Kiernan and his friend used a tarp from his truck to wrap the more energetic deer up and subdue him, and while they held both deer down, they used a Sawzall to cut the interlocked antlers away.
With the deer unhooked from each other, now the danger was increased. Releasing the deer was a tricky task, but these South Dakota farm boys had a lot of experience in the branding pens and knew how to push the deer away as they let them go so they wouldn’t get themselves in a bad situation.
Both deer got up and ran off, thanks to a couple of guys who weren’t afraid to step in and lend a helping hand.
