Deer Spotted Swimming With Bucket Stuck Over Head In Long Island Sound, Rescued [VIDEO]

An animal rescue official in New York rescued a deer Saturday after it was spotted swimming in the Long Island Sound with a paint bucket stuck on its head.

Members of the public who spotted the deer in the frigid water near Port Jefferson alerted the Strong Island Animal Rescue League, an animal protection service. An official with the service, Frank Floridia, responded to the scene, according to KABC-TV.

The protection service shared a video of the rescue on its Facebook page. In the video, the rescue official is seen pursuing the deer on a vessel before removing the bucket from its head. The doe then circles in the water for about a minute as it appears to finally breathe easy. Floridia is seen in the video lifting the deer from the water in his embrace.

"This rescue consisted of rolling down a cliff, going swimming, hanging off a boat and wrestling a deer in the water!" The protection service captioned the video. The deer is now recovering at the Strong Island Animal Rescue.

"I bear-hugged her against the boat and he drove us back to shore. As we got back to shore I was still holding her on the front of the boat," Floridia told WABC-TV. "She seemed very calm — she knew she was being helped."

In Nov. 2019, a lobsterman rescued a young deer stranded in waters five miles off the Maine Coast. The lobsterman, Ren Dorr, was setting up traps when he spotted the deer, which had given up swimming and was getting carried away farther by the water current. His crew looked at him in disbelief when he offered to take the deer aboard as it is fairly risky to keep wild animals in a confined space. Despite that, however, they still rescued the animal and took it to their vessel, where it lay like a dog.