Hunters Free and Pet Young Deer Stuck on Fence in Central Missouri

Hunters in central Missouri freed an injured young buck whose hind leg was stuck on a metal fence on November 17 – and then gave the animal a hearty head scratch.

This video, filmed by Buck Tranbarger, shows a deer caught on a fence on Tranbarger’s private hunting grounds in Warrensburg, Missouri.

The men in the video said the deer’s wound was bleeding and looked infected, but Tranbarger later told Storyful it didn’t seem like the deer was in severe pain. Tranbarger said he thought the buck had been caught on the fence for several days.

The video shows one of the hunters fidgeting with the jumpy trapped animal. The deer is suddenly popped free, stumbles to the ground, and then slowly gets up. The deer lingers as one of the men approaches to scratch its head for nearly a minute. The animal then lunges, antlers first, at the fence and one of the hunters says, “Let’s go.”

Tranbarger told Storyful the deer’s tolerance for being petted was its way of “almost saying thank you.” Credit: Buck Tranbarger via Storyful