‘Jughead’ freed: Neighbors remove plastic jug stuck on deer’s head

OHIO TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A deer with a plastic jug stuck on his head for nearly a month has been freed from his predicament.

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The buck, nicknamed “Jughead” by Bill Sawyer, had been spotted in the woods on Feb. 22 by the Pennsylvania videographer, WPXI-TV reported. The deer was caught on a game camera outside his home in Ohio Township, located outside Pittsburgh.

“I caught it on the game cam,” Sawyer told the television station. “I thought it (jug) was an orb. I couldn’t figure out what it was.

“It couldn’t eat, without a doubt. There was no way for it to eat, there was no way for it to get water.”

Sawyer began posting photographs and videos of the animal on his Facebook page, and soon neighbors attempted to catch the deer to remove the jug.

“We all worked together,” Sawyer told WPXI. “Twenty people around here worked together to give it a chance.”

On March 20, Matt and Lisa Mertz managed to corral the deer.

“We went outside at like 7:30 and by 8:20 we had spotted the deer and Lisa said, ‘Matt, I’ve got the deer,’ and I ran over and she approached it from the front and kind of snuck up behind it from the back,” Matt Mertz told the television station.

“He was doing a slow trot and I held on to the container just so I could get some sort of grip onto him,” Lisa Mertz told WPXI. “Then, I was able to turn my body and secure him safely until Matt was able to hold him from behind and we were able to get the container off his head.”

“It ended as well as it could’ve today,” Sawyer told the television station.

The Mertzes said they were grateful that the story had a happy ending.

“We’re huge animal lovers and you could just tell, the look on its face, that it was starting to wear down and get a lot weaker,” Lisa Mertz said. “I’m not sure if it would’ve survived another day, so it was all in God’s hands to handle it and we were able to figure it out.”

“It was just the right thing to do,” Matt Mertz said. “We wanted to do everything we could and we’re fortunate.”

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