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Watch: Police use Taser to free buck tangled in dead rival's antlers

When battling bucks got their antlers tangled, police in South Lake Minnetonka used a Taser to stun the surviving animal and then sawed him free
Minnesota cops Taser buck to free tangled antlers 01:14

MINNEAPOLIS -- It's rare to see a couple of white-tail bucks locked in a fight in the wild.

But that's exactly what some Shorewood residents woke up to Sunday morning -- and it was captured on video, CBS station WCCO reports.

Two bucks had locked antlers and then became stuck together.

When Jayme Pantekoek woke up Sunday morning, the last thing he expected to see was a fight of any kind in his back yard.

But standing before him were two bucks. One had already died in the fight, but the winner was unable to walk away.

"He still had a lot of fight in him. Probably drug him, you know, two houses down from our house and back," Pantekoek said.

It was a dangerous situation, considering the fight had grabbed the attention of a coyote.

South Lake Minnetonka police were called, and Officer Ricky Syhre suggested using a Taser on the deer.

"We didn't want the deer to get any more injured than what it was," Syhre said. "Residents, we didn't want them to get injured trying to get them involved with it too."

So Syhre's partner, Officer John Wareham, used his Taser on an animal for the first time in his career.

That's when Pantekoek, using his battery-powered saw, ran up to the living deer and began sawing off its antler.

antlers.jpg
Police use Taser to free buck tangled in dead rival's antlers. WCCO/South Lake Minnetonka Police

"The timing was very important to get in, get the job done, get out as fast as you can to clear the area," Pantekoek said.

And that's exactly what they did. About 30 seconds after Pantekoek cut off his antler, the deer woke up and ran off.

Police think the deer were stuck together for hours.

For his role in this rescue, Pantekoek got to keep the antler he sawed off.

"That was definitely a sight to be seen that morning," Pantekoek said.

No one was hurt. It's possible the bucks were fighting over territory.

There was a lot of weight being thrown around. It's estimated that the dead deer weighed about 200 pounds, and it appears it died from a broken neck.

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