Oak Harbor deer freed after pipe removal, eight-month rescue effort
An Oak Harbor buck limped for months before wildlife crews cut a PVC pipe off its leg and released it into woods, capping a rescue driven by neighbors and a Facebook post.
Concern over a young deer on Whidbey Island ended in relief Saturday when state wildlife crews sedated the animal, cut a PVC pipe off its leg and released it back into a wooded area in Oak Harbor.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said the deer was a juvenile male black-tailed deer that had been limping and had eluded several tranquilization attempts during the previous week. WDFW conflict specialist Tucker Seitz and district wildlife biologist Kurt Licence carried out the rescue, removed the pipe, treated a wound above the hoof and gave the deer a health exam before it walked away.
The fix came after months of unease in a Ridgeway Drive neighborhood, where residents said the deer was one of two fawns born less than a year ago. Robert “Bob” Ramsey said he first noticed the pipe about a year earlier, while neighbor Lori Matteson said the problem became clear last fall. Ramsey said the deer regularly visited his property, where an apple tree drew deer each year.
Ramsey said he repeatedly tried to reach wildlife agencies and veterinarians before turning to the public for help. The case drew wider attention after he posted on Facebook asking whether anyone knew a veterinarian who could help, a message that quickly spread and pulled in dozens of comments. Community attention and media coverage helped coordinate the response, and WDFW later said it was able to locate and handle the deer.
Chase Gunnell, a WDFW communications manager, thanked residents who helped find the animal and said the agency hoped it would make a full recovery over time. The agency also said the sort of intervention was not unusual, pointing to an earlier Coupeville case in which a deer had a man-made band removed after it was tranquilized.
For Oak Harbor residents, the outcome answered a question that had lingered for months: when a neighborhood problem finally became impossible to ignore, the rescue did come. The deer’s release closed a long stretch of uncertainty and showed how quickly local concern can turn into action once the right people are reached.
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