“I didn’t want to take advantage of the deer,” 23-year-old Joshua Baldridge tells Inside Edition.
It is hunting season in many parts of the U.S. but one deer managed to catch himself.
The deer was in distress as his antlers were caught in a rope attached to a tree. The deer frantically tried to free himself as he swung himself back and forth.
Three hunters in Fresno, Ohio, stumbled upon the ordeal.
“There was a rope swing for the creek behind that and somehow it managed to get its head wrapped up in the rope,” 23-year-old Joshua Baldridge tells Inside Edition.
The hunters did not consider killing the animal.
“I didn’t want to take advantage of the deer,” Baldridge says.
They came up with a strategy to tire the deer out.
Baldridge positioned himself to grab the deer but it was not easy. At around 200 pounds, the animal is powerful and the antlers could be deadly. But Baldrige is a wrestler and put the deer in a move called a tight waist.
“He was kicking me and I think he was trying to bite me. I felt really helpless,” Baldridge says.
Within seconds, the rope was cut and the deer was set free.
