‘Operation Bambi:’ AR animal control saves buck stuck in pond

WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — Animal control jumped into action to help save the life of a buck that found himself in a West Memphis retention pond Wednesday morning but couldn’t find his way out.

Kerry Facello with West Memphis Animal Services says the call came in just before 9 a.m., that the buck had been stuck there for at least three hours, and couldn’t get traction to climb up the embankment.

“‘Operation Bambi,’ we are trying to rescue. We’ve been called by some very nice workers over here in a spot where there was an old chemical plant, there is a deer that is trapped in a retaining pond,” said Facello.

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Just like they do with cats and dogs, Facello and her team came to the rescue.

“Your first instinct is just, ‘Hey, I’m going to get into this body of water, I’m going to get a boat, get a rope, and I’m going to get that animal to safety.’ But it’s not that cut and dry,’ she said.

The retention pond is 10,000 gallons and is meant to be protected from humans, due to the nature of the chemicals and equipment inside.

“We laid tarps, anything that had some kind of texture to it, in order to provide some traction,” said Facello.

They also set up a drop cloth donated by a local painter, which they set up on either corner.

But at that point, the animal was stressed, swimming back and forth, now afraid to try and get out.

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“Wildlife, as with most animals but particularly wildlife, the more human interaction or presence, they’re not going to respond. You can’t lure a deer,” said Facello.

So, they left and let nature take it from there.

“He had probably been left alone for a couple of hours, we have been confirmed the deer did safely exit the pond after we all left the pond and we let it destress,” she said.

It wasn’t caught on camera, but after a long swim on a hot day, Arkansas fish and wildlife says the deer climbed up the drop cloth, and as far away from the pond as possible.

“A happy ending to a long, long day. Yeah! Yeah, it is a very happy ending to a long day,” Facello said.

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