People pitch in for deer in distress

By CHERY SABOL

The Daily Inter Lake

Rescuers did their best Friday morning to save a deer in the partially frozen waters of Foy's Lake.

The animal didn't survive, but not for a lack of effort by Smith Valley firefighters and neighbors.

"I just happened to look out my living room window and there it was," said Gary Sallee, a lakeshore resident. By then, his neighbors, Mark and Dawn Ingraham, already had called the fire department.

Deer frequently swim across the lake and Sallee said his "yard is full of them."

Friday morning, the lake was about three-quarters frozen. The deer "got out there and went through," Sallee said. It was 350 feet from shore.

A half-dozen volunteers with Smith Valley Fire Department showed up.

Capt. Doug Scarff and Art Bielz put on ice-rescue suits and climbed into a canoe, secured with ropes held by volunteers on shore.

The men, both 190 to 200 pounds, spent 30 to 40 laborious minutes breaking through ice and advancing the boat, Scarff said. The process would have been much different if the rescuers had been going after a person.

With the ice cleared, the men returned to shore and two other, fresher firefighters went out with a rope to lasso the deer and drag it back in. Volunteers on shore pulled in the canoe as it gently towed the 160-pound deer.

"It was a fat one," Scarff said of the doe.

It was still breathing, barely alive, when it arrived on shore. Rescuers attempted to revive the deer, but the animal had been through too much.

"It was in shock," Sallee said.

Scarff speculates that the doe had a heart attack, drowned or just succumbed to the cold water.

While the rescuers were disappointed the deer didn't survive, the attempt was necessary to prevent someone else from getting into danger, Scarff said.

"We don't want somebody thinking, 'I'll go out there and save that deer,'" he said.

Those efforts usually result in rescuers having to save a person.

"If your pet or an animal goes through the ice, don't go after it," Scarff said. "Call the fire department."

There are five bodies of water in the Smith Valley Fire Districtboundaries.

"We're always doing something in the water," Scarff said.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com