Man rescues helpless deer from a frozen lake in Canada

In Canada, video footage of a man saving three deer, hopelessly stranded in the middle of a frozen lake has surfaced. The video that the man-made of his successful rescue mission was shared online thousands of times.

Ryan Peterson just wanted to go skating on the Lake of the Woods in the north of Ontario during his lunch hour when he suddenly saw three wild deer in the middle of the ice. The animals lay on the ice with their legs spread out under them, as they found no grip on the smooth ice.

The man decided to help the animals. “If they stand up straight, they can kick your ass,” he tells The Guardian. “But when they’re on the ice, they can’t lift their legs.”

The animals, a mother deer, and her two calves seemed to be exhausted. According to Peterson, it was unlikely that they would make it across by themselves, making them easy prey for Wolves unprotected on the ice. “I thought it would be best if I went back to get a rope,” says Peterson. “I gave them an hour. They were still in the same place when I got back. Then I decided to draw them to the shore.”

Solid ground under the hooves

The man first approached the mother deer and pulled her to the side with the rope. Then he returned for the calves, which he pulled two at a time to the side. Once on the shore, he had to gently hunt the animals down with a stick, until they had solid ground under the hooves again.

How the animals could get so far on the ice is unclear.