Little deer rescued from Okanagan Lake
A young deer trapped by ice floes in Okanagan Lake was rescued by a group of kind-hearted men.
The heartwarming mission of mercy involved two boats — one of them acting as an icebreaker — and employees of BC Hydro, Western Pacific Enterprises, Okanagan Pile Driving, and Mike V’s Automotive.
“I like deer . . . I like wildlife,” Ken Finlayson, a hydro employee who played a key role in the rescue, said in a release issued by utility.
“You just can’t leave the poor animal to suffer and perish if you have the capability to help out,” Finlayson said.
Finlayson and Rob Asplin of Western Pacific Enterprises spotted the fawn flailing in the freezing waters of Okanagan Lake about 100 metres offshore as they drove along Westside Road last week.
They pulled over and had a look through binoculars.
“Obviously it was having a lot of difficulty in the water,” Finlayson said.
Moments earlier, Finlayson and Asplin had passed a barge with a few workers on it. They drove back, and the people on two boats agreed to help with the rescue.
Men on one boat plucked the deer from the water, while those on an another vessel carved a path through ice that blocked the shore.
The rescuers tried to put the deer in shallow water, hoping it would make it to shore. But the animal seemed unable to do so, so Kevin Morris jumped into the water, then carried the deer to land.
“Even after we got her to shore, we were worried that she wasn’t going to make it,” said Chris Burton of Okanagan Pile Driving.
The BC Hydro crew covered the immobile deer with blankets, hoping for the best.
“We talked about how we could stay and watch the thing covered up in blankets, but it was obviously stressed that we were there,” Finlayson said.
All the men went back to work, uncertain of the outcome of their rescue efforts.
The next day, however, some of those involved in getting the deer out of the water returned to the site out of curiosity. Burton was excited to see the young deer up on all fours, moving around.
“She went up the bank, across the road and up the hillside,” Burton said.
“The whole thing was pretty cool. Everyone just jumped in and got ‘er done.”