Three deer were rescued Wednesday in two separate incidents from underneath the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. One later died and a second was euthanized due to injuries.
Police responded Wednesday afternoon to a 911 call reporting that two deer were stranded on the seawall under the Bay Ridge side of the bridge. Four launch boats were deployed and officers found the two three-feet-tall deer near the rocks. One was thrashing in about eight feet of water.
Officers on the 31-foot NYPD Harbor Launch No. 315 from Jamaica Bay used a rope noose attached to a six-foot-long pole to pull the deer onto their boat. Its rear legs were bound with twine, police said. The deer on the rocks was boxed in and brought upon boat Launch No. 4.
Both deer were taken first to the Great Kills Park Marina in Staten Island and then to the 75th Precinct Center for Animal Care and Control — located at 2336 Linden Blvd. One was a male deer that the officers nicknamed Rudolph and the other was a female that they dubbed Rudolph’s girlfriend.
Rudolph’s girlfriend died en route to the animal shelter.
Tom Panzone, a spokesperson for the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation, said the NYPD is investigating how the deer ended up in the water and if the bound legs were the result of animal cruelty.
Richard Gentles, the animal center’s director of development and communications, said Rudolph was in good health after a full check-up and thereby released into a protected nature reserve in Staten Island.
Earlier on Wednesday morning, the Brooklyn shelter had received a badly injured male deer that was found at Bay Ridge’s Shore Road Park. The deer was stuck in the bars of the railing between the water and the park, Gentles said. It frantically tried to free itself and was injured in the process.
Police officials cut one of the bars to free the deer and transported it to the animal care center. Gentles said the deer was in such poor condition when it arrived that the center decided to put it to sleep.
Unaware of yesterday’s unusual rescue, Bay Ridge joggers underneath the Verrazano Bridge had their curiosities piqued today and stopped to stare at the yellow-taped portion of the railing at Shore Road Park. Dried blood and hair marked the spot where the first deer got stuck.
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Deer Rescued by Police Later Died
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