Police in North Canton, Ohio, spent part of last week on a rescue they say they had never attempted before: freeing a full-grown buck that had gotten itself thoroughly tangled in a backyard hammock.
Officers Taylor, Carrel and Lewis responded to the call alongside a state wildlife officer from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, after a resident spotted the deer thrashing against the hammock's fabric and support ropes in their yard. The animal had managed to work an antler and a leg through the webbing, pinning itself in place. Officers worked to keep the buck calm while carefully cutting away the material strand by strand, freeing it without tranquilizers or physical restraint.
The department said the deer showed no signs of injury once loose and ran off into nearby woods shortly after release, a detail local outlets treated as the happiest possible ending to an otherwise stressful encounter for both the animal and the homeowner.
A first, after a long list of odd calls
In a social media post recapping the incident, North Canton police called it "an unusual rescue with a happy ending" and noted that hammock entanglements were a new one even for a department well-versed in unusual wildlife calls. "Over the years we've helped deer tangled in fences, stuck in ponds, and trapped in places they definitely weren't supposed to be," the department wrote, adding that this was its first-ever hammock rescue.
Deer entanglements are a recurring, if unpredictable, problem for suburban and exurban police departments across the Midwest, particularly in early fall, when bucks are more active and prone to catching antlers on fences, decorations, hammocks and swing sets while moving through residential yards ahead of the rut. Wildlife officers generally recommend that homeowners call animal control or police rather than attempt to free a trapped deer themselves, since a panicked buck's antlers and hooves can cause serious injury at close range.
North Canton police did not say whether the hammock survived the encounter. The department's post drew heavy engagement online, with commenters largely praising the officers' patience and the animal's undignified but ultimately unharmed exit from a very Ohio predicament.
