Deer stuck in marsh on St. Helena aided by unlikely hero. Story has sad ending
Employees with Coastal Expeditions, a local boat and kayak tour company on St. Helena Island, got an unusual call from a neighbor passing through the area Sunday morning.
As it turns out, a young deer was stuck in a marsh near the store with the tide coming in. After spotting the deer in danger, the neighbor called the store’s general manager, Thorton Lacy, who looped in his employee, Education Coordinator Jessica Wiggins. It was shortly after 8 a.m., and the store has just opened.
“Our day had just shortly started,” Wiggins told The Packet. “He was like, ‘You want to help me get a deer out of the marsh?’”
The two loaded a paddleboard into the back of a truck and headed out to the marsh. As they headed toward the deer, they got a call from Beaufort County Animal Services. BCAS asked if they could help the animal, to which they replied that they were already on their way.
The deer was trapped in the pluff mud, close enough to the edge that it could be reached without much difficulty. If the tide had come up a little further, it would have drowned, Wiggins said.
Wiggins paddled out to the deer, while Lacy stayed on the shore, holding on. “It looked at me, but it didn’t really seem scared,” she said. “I think it was in a lot of pain, and it was just kind of like not really sure what to do.”
The deer didn’t put up a fight as Wiggins picked it up and puts its front legs over the paddle board, while Lacy pulled them back to shore. The animal was young, and was “just getting the start of horns or antlers,” Wiggins said.
“I was just talking to it,” Wiggins said. “Like, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m going to help you, it’s OK.’”
Sadly, the deer was badly injured and “barely hanging onto life,” Wiggins said. The animal had likely been hit by a car.
According to Tallulah McGee with Beaufort County Animal Services, the deer’s injuries were severe and “bones were exposed.” The young deer was euthanized “to prevent any more suffering,” McGee said in a statement.
The incident marked an unusual start to a normal day for Coastal Expeditions, which offers a variety of eco-tours such as dolphin cruises, boat rentals, and conservation education programs, according to Wiggins.
However, it’s not the first time the local company has been called to go out and rescue an animal. Last year, the team helped with a sea turtle rescue, Wiggins said.
For Wiggins, who previously worked at wildlife rehabilitation facility in Alabama, the rescue had her “brushing up on old skills.”
“Usually when an animal lets you touch it, they’re not doing very well,” Wiggins said. “So it made me feel a little better when we did discover that it had been severely injured from the car, but still that’s not always the outcome you want when you help something.”
