At approximately 7:45 a.m. yesterday morning, a driver heading south on Hwy 17 noticed a deer struggling in the open water of Vermillion Lake.
Const. Pedro Yoo of the North East OPP responded to the call, contacting Greater Sudbury Fire Services while on route to the scene.
After assessing the situation, Platoon Chief George Lalonde of the Greater Sudbury Fire Service, called in their water rescue team to extract the deer.
The water rescue team of eight people arrived at approximately 9:45 a.m., at which point two of the team members began paddling a raft toward the stranded doe.
In the process of the rescue, the 200-pound doe panicked and began swimming beneath the ice, at which point one of the team members jumped out of the raft and into the freezing water to secure a rope around the frightened animal.
For 40 minutes the team guided the deer some 30-40 ft back to the shoreline, who once released, hopped happily away from the scene.
OPP North East Const. Pedro Yoo recorded the event in three parts, which you can access below.
#SudburyOPP attended the Vermillion River for a deer that fell through the ice near #Whitefish. The OPP contacted the Greater Sudbury Fire Services for assistance. Firefighters rescued the deer. Great job! #thankyou Part 1 of 3 ^cm pic.twitter.com/jcbHIquQBq
— OPP North East (@OPP_NER) December 1, 2018
Part 2 of 3 #SudburyOPP attended the Vermillion River for a deer that fell through the ice near #Whitefish. The OPP contacted the Greater Sudbury Fire Services for assistance. Firefighters rescued the deer. Great job! #thankyou ^cm pic.twitter.com/69CgyX8qDU
— OPP North East (@OPP_NER) December 1, 2018
Part 3 of 3 #SudburyOPP attended the Vermillion River for a deer that fell through the ice near #Whitefish. The OPP contacted the Greater Sudbury Fire Services for assistance. Firefighters rescued the deer. Great job! #thankyou ^cm pic.twitter.com/wLk1BntRiZ
— OPP North East (@OPP_NER) December 1, 2018
