On Saturday afternoon, a Coaldale resident stumbled across a deer trapped in a water collection tank in Coaldale, while visiting their mother’s house. “I walked up the driveway and I saw fur and I was very surprised,” says Vena Van Mil.
Van Mil adds they immediately called their mom after the initial panic wore off. “I said, ‘mom, I think there’s a dog in the cistern’ and she said ‘what are you talking about, no.’ And I said, ‘it’s right here, I’m looking at it’ and she said, ‘we have to get it out.’”
So, the next call was to 9-1-1 and Van Mil was directed to Coaldale and District Emergency Services. “It was pretty quick. The police came out and after he assessed, he was able to call in the necessary crew and they came on by. It was such a quick and fast process. I was amazed. They were very professional, they worked together and they were able to get the poor thing out in about 20 minutes.”
Van Mil says crew members said the deer was about a one-year-old male deer.
Apart from the deer being stuck in two-feet of mud for a few hours, Van Mil says emergency services got the wild animal out. “It was super filthy, but it was OK. It was not harmed and it bolted off. I hope it got washed off.”
“What’s so surprising is I am from west Lethbridge and I live in Coaldale now. In Lethbridge, deer are more populous than humans it seems like, but definitely not in Coaldale. We’ve never seen one, especially in the suburb area,” says Van Mil.
Van Mil says they’re very thankful for Coaldale and District Emergency Services and how quickly the team was able to respond to the unique situation. “And how respectful they were. Once they saw what the issue was, they created a game plan and they worked well to get it out of there.”