{"id":125100,"date":"2025-11-08T19:15:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T19:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/125100\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T19:15:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T19:15:14","slug":"carpenter-refuses-to-leave-deer-trapped-in-ravine-so-she-builds-a-stairway-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/125100\/","title":{"rendered":"Carpenter Refuses To Leave Deer Trapped In Ravine, So She Builds A Stairway Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, a herd of deer wandered through a forest in New Jersey. A river runs through a ravine in those woods, with tall cement walls on either side to contain the water. As the herd grazed, one deer either lost his footing or got spooked and tumbled into the ravine.<\/p>\n

The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge<\/p>\n

Injured and alone, the deer had no way to escape. The cement walls were between 7 and 10 feet tall and went on for miles. His only option was to wait.<\/p>\n

Finally, after two weeks, local residents called animal control. Officers surveyed the scene and realized they couldn\u2019t handle this type of rescue. They contacted Nancy Warner, president and founder of The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge<\/a>, for help.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe walked two miles in each direction and could not find an exit point to guide him to,\u201d Warner told The Dodo. \u201cSo, we realized he’s going to have to come up and out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge<\/p>\n

Warner added that the forecast at the time called for storms in the next two days. If they didn\u2019t get the deer out within 48 hours, the river would rise and he would be in even worse trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis herd was still around,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were coming to the side of the wall to visit him regularly \u2026 They were bellowing to each other. It was really sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ideally, the USDA would sedate the deer and lift him out of the ravine. But when representatives from the USDA came out to assess the situation, they decided against it.<\/p>\n

The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge isn\u2019t authorized to sedate deer, so Warner, who has 36 years of veterinary medicine and wildlife rehab experience under her belt, got creative.<\/p>\n

The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge<\/p>\n

She enlisted Sandy Platt Mantione, a volunteer and carpenter, to build custom stairs for the deer to climb up and out. Mantione didn\u2019t bat an eye \u2014 she was on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were, you know, racing against daylight and that storm,\u201d Warner said. \u201cWe loaded up our trailer with all the wood and the supplies, and we got down there and lowered everything in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, the deer did not seem shocked by the humans\u2019 presence. \u201cHe knew we were there to help him,\u201d Warner said. \u201cHe was actually kind of hanging out and monitoring the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge<\/p>\n

As Warner described what to build, Mantione and several other volunteers from Associated Humane Societies Newark got to work.<\/p>\n

The stairs had to be wide enough for all four of the deer\u2019s legs, without being too steep given his injury.<\/p>\n

The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge<\/p>\n

\u201cI had her add a couple pieces of trim and placed them specifically in places where I knew he would be able to kick off at the back feet to launch upward,\u201d Warner said.<\/p>\n

It took the crew almost three hours to construct the stairs. Then they gathered their gear, strategically placed some food pellets on the steps and left.<\/p>\n

The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge<\/p>\n

In just a few minutes, the deer approached his brand-new, custom staircase. Sniffing the pellets, he quickly figured out where he needed to go.<\/p>\n

The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge<\/p>\n

Within 15 minutes, he successfully cleared the edge of the ravine and was off, back to his herd.<\/p>\n

The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge<\/p>\n

Warner said the deer\u2019s injury was a minor soft tissue injury, not a fracture. She expects it has almost completely healed by now.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post<\/a> documenting the entire ordeal, Warner wrote she had no idea if this plan would work.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut,\u201d she said, \u201cwe had to try.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you’d like to support The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge, you can donate via their website<\/a>.\u00a0\"Body<\/a>Body Cams Capture Dramatic Moment Officers Remove Tomato Tower From Deer’s NeckThey refused to give up on her.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few weeks ago, a herd of deer wandered through a forest in New Jersey. A river runs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1178,2668,87132,87131,87133,111,139,69,7429,147,1177,1175,406,27544],"class_list":{"0":"post-125100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-daily-dodo","9":"tag-deer","10":"tag-deer-injured","11":"tag-deer-rescue","12":"tag-deer-stuck","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-sarah-ashley","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-standard","19":"tag-the-dodo","20":"tag-wildlife","21":"tag-wildlife-rescue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}