“It was 4:30 a.m. when the bell rang to get me out of bed,” forester Jörg Sigmund recalls the very early Friday morning. Fortunately, the district hunting master lives in Eusserthal, because other foresters could not be reached by phone at that time. A local resident had a real fright when he left the house that morning and went to work. The family lives in a side street of the small community in the middle of the Palatinate Forest – in the last house. Wildlife sightings are common there, but always at a reasonable distance. But when the father of the family let the front door slam that morning, he saw a deer in a helpless position right at his feet.
The house is slightly elevated. A staircase with a wrought iron railing leads to the entrance. The goat got caught between its metal bars. How the forest animal got in there is also a mystery to the district hunting master. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” The handrails are about 20 centimeters apart, Sigmund estimates. “The animal may have been startled, ran away, wanted to go through the railing and got stuck.” The doe got stuck in the pelvic area.
Pulled out very gently
“The man told me she was screaming. She was certainly scared to death,” said the forester. Especially since the goat was carrying young in her belly, as he found out after he had reached the property. He had taken a blanket and a knife with him. You never know if you might have to rescue the animal, he says. Fortunately, the story took a happy turn.
“The animal looked at me. I carefully put the blanket over his head and talked to him soothingly. Then we lifted the deer up between the bars and very slowly and gently pulled it out to the rear,” reports the forester of the moment of liberation, which the wife and two children are now also watching with excitement. At that moment, however, no one thought of taking a picture of the rescue operation. “The family was in shock.”
Harm to unborn boys?
The pregnant goat was pretty exhausted after this action and lay down first. “But it didn’t take long for her to get up. At first she staggered, then she fled in the direction of the forest very cheerfully.” The forester says that the mishap didn’t cause any damage to the kids in her stomach. The width of the belly still fit through the rods, the deer only got stuck on the pelvis.
The animal also remained very calm during the rescue operation and did not fight back. Sometimes deer could kick their legs. That’s why he advises citizens who encounter helpless wild animals to notify a forest ranger or the police immediately.
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