Shropshire Star

Lobstermen rescue deer ‘stranded five miles out to sea’

The crew sailed an hour and a half out of their way to get the animal safely back to land.

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A deer swimming in the occean

A deer that somehow found itself drifting out to sea had a lucky escape as it was picked up by a crew of lobstermen five miles from land.

Ren Dorr was setting traps with his crew off the coast of Maine when he spotted the unusual sight on Monday.

“Found this little guy 5 miles offshore today drifting farther away from land,” Mr Dorr said in a Facebook post. “Couldn’t let the poor guy suffer and drown so we brought him aboard and sailed him half hour to land and dropped him off on the beach!”

A deer aboard a boat
The deer was shaking and shivering when the crew got him aboard, Ren Dorr said (Ren Dorr)

Mr Dorr and his crewmates, Shawn Dowlingand Jared Thaxter, used a fishing gaff – a pole with a hook on the end – to grip the young stag’s antler and managed to haul him on to the deck of the boat.

“He laid right down like a dog. He was beat out, shaking, shivering. I’m sure he was froze,” Mr Dorr told the Bangor Daily News.

The crew then sailed around an hour and a half to the nearest town, Harrington.

The deer swims to shore
The crew dropped the deer close to the shore and watched him swim to land (Ren Dorr)

They dropped him as close to the shore as they could and watched him swim the rest of the way to land, before heading towards to the woods.

“He was gonna die, 100%,” Mr Dorr said. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts — he was a goner. I couldn’t have that on my conscience, obviously. That’s not the guy that I am, so I figured I’d bring him in.”

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