Lobsterman Rescues Live Deer Stranded In Water

A Lobsterman has rescued a young deer from drowning in water five miles off Maine coast on Monday morning. He was shocked to find a live deer trapped in open waters.

"Found this little guy 5 miles offshore today drifting farther away from land," 31-year-old Harrington lobsterman Ren Dorr said in a Facebook post.

Dorr was setting traps when he spotted the young deer, which had given up swimming, being carried away farther by the water current. He and his crew pulled the deer, weighing about 100-pound, aboard.

“I’m sure he [had been] going from island to island or shore to an island and he couldn’t see or got caught in the current,” Dorr told the Bangor Daily News. “He was just kind of going with the flow. He wasn’t trying to fight it or swim with it. He was just kind of floating along.”

The deer was being pushed towards the open ocean. Dorr knew that it had likely been in the water for six hours already owing to the tide, CBS News reported.

When Dorr offered to take the animal in their boat, his crew looked at him in disbelief. “They kind of looked at me like I had 10 heads,” Dorr said.

It is very risky to keep a wild animal in a confined space but Dorr told the newspaper that the deer was very tired. "He laid right down like a dog, He was beat out, shaking, shivering. I’m sure he was froze,” Dorr stated.

He said that although he has seen the deer trying to swim before, yet he had to play a Good Samaritan to save its life.

“I couldn’t have that on my conscience, obviously," Dorr added. "That’s not the guy that I am, so I figured I’d bring him in.”

The deer was freed after they reached Harrington in half an hour. It lay down for a few seconds, then climbed up the tree line and fed itself.

Dorr said he has seen a deer in water before also. However, they are mostly spotted in a local river where they take shelter to escape hunters or coyotes.