Deer's Head Gets Stuck in Fake Pumpkin
By JAMES PRICHARD, Associated Press
November 09, 2006

CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. - A plastic jack-o'-lantern meant for collecting Halloween candy is threatening the life of a small, immature deer that calls a gated community home. The fake pumpkin has been stuck on the animal's snout for at least several days. It hangs there like an orange-and-black feed bag from its thin handle, which appears to be snagged on the young buck's ears or horn buds.

Ironically, the container that resembles a feed bag and is intended to hold children's treats is instead keeping the animal from eating. It also looks as if the plastic pumpkin prevents the deer from drinking. Animal experts who went Thursday to the neighborhood in Kent County's Cascade Township to assess the situation not only saw the deer but got to within 35 to 40 yards of him, said Bert Vescolani, director of the John Ball Zoo in nearby Grand Rapids.

Zoo personnel, as well as other animal experts, planned to return to the site Friday. If they see the deer, they hope to safely shoot a tranquilizer dart into him, remove the plastic jack-o'-lantern after the buck becomes unconscious, and then take the animal somewhere to recover until he can be released back into the wild.

Although Vescolani and the others got a good look at the buck, which has been spotted in a herd of several deer, they could not get close enough to make a good assessment of his physical condition. Still, the bucket was not impairing the animal's vision, and the deer looked strong, he said. "He seems to be doing pretty well," Vescolani said. "I'm always amazed at how wildlife makes it sometimes, even under the hardest conditions."

Anesthetizing the buck and taking him away carries some degree of risk, Vescolani said, but the creature surely will die of starvation or dehydration unless the plastic pumpkin is removed from his head. The bucket also would make it much easier for hunters to see the animal when the state's deer firearm season begins Wednesday.

Deb Larson, who lives in the wooded, semi-rural gated neighborhood that the buck frequents, said she appreciates the effort to save the animal being made by the zoo, the Humane Society of Kent County and the Grand Rapids-based Wildlife Rehab Center Ltd., a nonprofit group that helps to rehabilitate abandoned and injured wildlife.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has provided them with guidance and other assistance. "I'm very thankful that they are going to try and get him," Larson said.

Vescolani said he and the others will do their best to save the deer. "There are a lot of folks trying to do the right thing, and hopefully we'll get the right results that'll be the best for the animal," he said. "That's what we all want."