DEC Officers Help Deer With Plastic Halloween Pumpkin

PUTNAM VALLEY, NY — Two environmental conservation officers helped a yearling deer knock a plastic Halloween pumpkin bucket off its head. They did the chasing and the deer did the work.

ECOs Craig Tompkins and Charles Eyler III were called Nov. 20 to Sunset Hill Road and Lakeview Drive in the town of Putnam Valley for a deer with a Halloween pumpkin bucket stuck over its nose and the handle caught in its antlers. Concerned citizens and the local SPCA reported that the yearling buck had been seen with the bucket on its head for several days.

When ECOs Tompkins and Eyler arrived at the scene at around 2:30 p.m., they corralled the deer down a narrow path between a house and a large wood pile. Eventually the deer ran into a fence and behind the wood pile where it was able to hit enough brush and sticks to knock the pumpkin bucket free.

The deer reunited with a larger doe nearby and headed into the woods.