With Halloween festivities approaching it is important to make sure your children are safe while trick-or-treating. However, let's also try to keep the wildlife safe. Oftentimes, when you leave a bucket of candy out on your porch you think it is no big deal. You probably assume that the worst thing that can happen is a child taking all of the candy in one swoop. However, another thing can happen as well. Animals are curious about candy and when they come to investigate they can get hurt. Either from ingesting things they shouldn't or by getting stuck in various plastic objects. An adorable deer in Ohio got its head stuck in a plastic Halloween bucket.
Deer Gets Head Stuck in Halloween Bucket
Screenshot from City of Westlake Ohio Police Department Facebook
While some may chuckle at the adorable image, I assure you it is anything but funny. With the bucket covering its nose and mouth the poor animal can no longer eat, drink, or even breathe properly. This can lead to dehydration, malnourishment, impaired vision and more. It can also cause the deer to become agitated and act differently. Furthermore if it can't see what is to stop it from wandering in front of vehicles on the road. You can see how it becomes less cute the further we dive into it?
The Westlake Police Department has been called in to assist the deer with its head stuck in a Halloween bucket. However, they are not having much luck. The NY Post shares that the officers have tried to get close enough to the animal to assist. However, "the deer ran away before police could render assistance."
Furthermore, in case you are of the opinion that maybe it only happened to one foolish deer, it is happening to multiple deer. The police department shared a post on Facebook claiming that " WPD has responded to several calls of deer with plastic decorative pumpkins stuck on their faces over the last few days."
How To Help
Shutterstock photo by
If you want to be a friend to the local wildlife be sure to remove any decorations from your yard that could be hazardous to the wildlife. And if you just have to have this little plastic Halloween pumpkin out for trick-or-treaters tonight, the police have thought of a solution. They wrote, "At least remove the plastic handle which tends to wrap about the deer's head causing the issue."
So there you have it, to help deer avoid getting their head stuck in a plastic Halloween bucket, simply remove the handle. Now the kids are happy because they get their candy, and the deer are happy because they don't have a face full of plastic for the rest of their lives.
