NEED TO KNOW
- Lifeguards rescued a deer that had somehow gotten stuck in the waves of Flagler Beach in Florida on Sunday, July 6
- First responders reportedly did not know how the deer made it into the water or how long it had been out in the waves
- Lifeguards pulled the deer, which was screaming throughout the rescue, from the water and brought it back to shore, where it was released into a nearby forest
A deer wasn’t caught in the headlights — but the ocean waves instead!
Lifeguards rescued a deer that was struggling to stay above the waves at Flagler Beach in Florida on Sunday, July 6, according to photos and videos obtained by WOFL-TV, WKMG-TV, and UPI.
In one clip shared with WOFL-TV, lifeguard Chase Hunter paddles out on a board and grabs the struggling deer from the waves. He then places the deer onto the board before swimming back toward the beach.
“We have a job to do. We save lives, whether it’s a human life or in this case, a deer,” Hunter told WOFL-TV. “It was a good rescue, a unique one.”
Courtesy of Lisa Baggett
According to WKMG-TV, the first responders who assisted with the rescue were unsure how the deer had entered the water or how long it had been struggling in the ocean.
Hunter noted to WOFL-TV that the deer had been struggling against him throughout the rescue, but he tried to calm the animal down by “talking to it.” He said he told the deer, “I’m here to help, calm down.”
He had backup from another lifeguard, Leo Peters, who said he helped push the board with the deer toward the shore. “I had never heard a deer before, and they yell. They yell loud,” Peters recalled to WOFL-TV, before jokingly adding, “When I got out there, I thought Chase was the one screaming.”
The lifeguards had to battle a torrential downpour, choppy waves, and avoid two sharks swimming in the water to get the deer to safety. A local fire rescue team helped the duo.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Courtesy of Lisa Baggett
“I was just holding on to the deer as hard as I could,” Hunter told the outlet. “It’s fighting. It’s heavy. I’m tired. Everybody’s tired. But in my mind, I was telling myself, ‘We’re getting this deer in one way or the other.'”
He said they had to go a bit further past the shore and near the forest to make sure that the deer returned safely to the wild and would not venture back onto the beach and into the Atlantic Ocean again.
“We’re extremely proud of them for not only taking concern for life safety for the public [seriously], but also for the environment,” Flagler Beach Fire Rescue’s Stephen Cox told WOFL-TV of his crew.
