Back in early September 2024, residents of Jasper, Georgia, noticed a fawn wandering around with something white wrapped around his neck. The young deer still had his spots, which meant he couldn’t have been more than a few months old.
Georgia Wildlife Network
As community members compared sightings, they realized the white around the deer’s neck was a section of PVC piping. A concerned resident called Georgia Wildlife Network for help.
“What we knew is if we didn’t get this pipe off, this animal could grow,” Tiffany Greene, assistant director at Georgia Wildlife Network, told The Dodo. “Slowly … [he] could be strangled by this PVC pipe.”
Georgia Wildlife Network
Greene said the best way to safely remove the PVC pipe would be tranquilizing the deer and cutting off the pipe. To do this, they needed the support of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the only organization authorized to use tranquilizers on deer. They also needed detailed information on the deer’s habits so DNR officials would know where to find the animal and when.
Unfortunately, deer hunting season in Georgia begins in mid-September and runs through January, and DNR will not tranquilize deer that close to hunting season.
Autumn turned to winter, then spring. To the relief of community members, the deer appeared again that summer, larger and stronger, the PVC pipe still around his neck.
Georgia Wildlife Network
“The original person that had reached out to us reached out again to say, ‘Hey, he’s back,’” Greene said. “And he looks great.”
The pipe appeared tighter, but the deer still frolicked through yards and ate as he went.
And his community started watching his every move.
“The crazy thing was, like, this was really a community effort of really hounding DNR to say, ‘Okay, he’s in our yard,’” Greene said. “They started tracking him. They started reporting to DNR. They started providing all the things needed for DNR to take action and save this deer.”
Sure enough, in July 2025, nearly nine months after residents first spotted the fawn, DNR successfully tranquilized him and sawed off the pipe.
Georgia Wildlife Network
The deer, uninjured, awoke and ran back to his herd.
Greene said she believes the fawn got stuck initially while eating from a homemade deer feeder. In a post about the event on Facebook, Georgia Wildlife Network reminded people not to build their own feeders for this very reason.
An example of a homemade deer feeder. | Georgia Wildlife Network
Luckily, this deer lived in an area where people respect and care for wildlife.
“The effort of the community was really what saved his life,” Greene said.
If you’d like to support the Georgia Wildlife Network, you can donate to their efforts via their website. 
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