A deer with a plastic pumpkin stuck on its head was aided by local Ohio teen Cameron Merritt, who tackled the deer and freed it from its unwanted headgear on Monday.
According to Fox 8 Cleveland, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources responded to callers in the town of Mentor who reported that they'd seen the deer repeatedly over the course of several days. Because the orange bucket was strapped over its mouth, they worried the deer wasn't able to eat or drink.
"My son and I saw the deer when we came out for the bus on Wednesday morning," local woman Patty O'Donnell
told USA Today. "It was on its hind legs and just trying to bat it off its face."
Volunteers and private specialists were called into help capture the deer with netting, as official policy recommends against tranquilizing free-ranging animals.
At one point, the deer was successfully corralled into a net, but it panicked, and quickly wiggled its way out before the plastic pumpkin could be removed.
A little while later Merritt, whose mother runs Birds in Flight sanctuary in Trumbull County, hid in a hunting blind and waited for the deer to draw near. When it finally did, Merritt sprang into action, tackling the deer like a linebacker.
"It's just like a football tackle," he said. "When I grabbed it, we went to the ground and this thing snapped off. It had to be done today. There was stress on that deer because it couldn't eat."
By all accounts, the deer seemed to be fine after getting jostled, and bounded off into the woods.
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