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Wisconsin men praised by authorities for saving deer in trouble

Wisconsin man frees tangled bucks
Posted at 3:26 PM, Jan 17, 2022
and last updated 2022-01-17 16:26:45-05

A man out on a drive in rural Wisconsin saw two deer in trouble and with the quick action of multiple people, they were able to save them.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is praising the work of the owner of the land where the bucks were found with their racks locked up.

Everett Sluga was out on a drive when he spotted the two deer locked together and in trouble.

"I got to where we're standing right now and I thought that I saw a back of a deer ... and I turned around and I couldn't understand why that deer didn't move, and when I turned around, I saw there was two bucks locked up," Sluga said.

Video of the incident gained popularity on the internet after garnering over 20 million views online.

In the video, you can see two white-tailed bucks with their racks so locked up they couldn't get free. That's when the landowner, Troy Rebarchek, found a saw that he had with him and worked to cut the two animals free to avoid having to shoot them.

"I just didn't feel it was right shooting them in the situation they were in. It just didn't feel ethical to me," Rebarchek said.

So even though it was still hunting season, Rebarcheck and his wife Tammy decided not to harvest the deer.

"I'm a hundred percent positive we made the right decision by saving them rather than shooting them," Sluga said.

The deer were seen again after the incident and said to have appeared healthy.