Deer caught after running loose in Hailsham for a week

East Sussex WRAS said it had received calls about the deer running around South Road, Meadow Road, Summerheath Road and Beuzeville Avenue coming close to being run over or near accidents.

WRAS believed the deer was having problems and causing a danger to traffic.

The deer was spotted around midday on May 5 in the old car park at the back of the ambulance station off London Road before rescuer Mark Harris attended the site and used WRAS’s ambulance to block off the access road confining the deer to the back of the building.

Mr Harris then called in reinforcements and two more veterinary ambulances attended, one from WRAS’s centre at Whitesmith and one from Barcombe.

Rescuers Kathy Martyn, Holly Davis, Julie Stafford and Trevor Weeks joined Mr Harris at the site.

They reviewed the reports of where the deer had been seen through the week and a pattern emerged showing the deer probably entered Hailsham from the south west so rescuers chose a release site at Abbotts Wood on the other side of the A22.

A spokesperson for East Sussex WRAS said, “Sedating deer in these situations is difficult and problematic and can cause issues on release, so a live capture was necessary.

“Meaning rescuers only had a 30-minute window to release the deer once caught or the deer could suffer a fatal heart attack.”

At a narrow point in the car park a walk-towards net was strung across as a fall back position in case the deer managed to get past the first line of rescuers.

Despite the deer charging past the rescuers it got entangled in the second net where the animal was able to be secured.

A stretcher was brought in and the deer was lifted onto it before being loaded into the back of WRAS’s transit ambulance and driven straight to the release site.

Once far enough away from the road, rescuers released the deer into the woods to recover from its ordeal.