Man dives into manure lagoon to rescue trapped deer on Vancouver Island

Courtenay -

Two men are being heralded as heroes, especially one who went up to his neck in manure to rescue a young deer Tuesday night on a farm in Courtenay, B.C.

Yvonne Muir says she had stopped at the side of Comox Road to pick some berries off a tree when her dogs ran over to a concrete pool-like structure filled with a dark substance .

Once the dogs were there, they noticed something thrashing about inside.

"I noticed it was a baby deer so I called my husband but he didn't answer, and then I posted on Comox Valley Rants and Raves," Muir says.

She says within minutes of that Facebook posting, members of the community started arriving to assist, including Sean Ferguson who immediately jumped into the substance and quickly realized he was in manure that was over his head.

"I didn't touch bottom there," Ferguson says. "Yeah, it was quite interesting, jumping in, but we got him, hopefully he's here with his mom."

The Courtenay man was assisted by Dayton Nixon who also responded to the Facebook post to rescue the fawn.

"We pulled up, got out of the vehicles at the same time and we walked right over to the side where the deer was and I was trying not to fall off of the wall and he just jumped right in" Nixon says. 

Nixon straddled the edge of the wall of what he describes as "just a giant hole full of manure" and assisted when Ferguson grabbed the deer

"I grabbed him around the waist and thankfully there was another fellow here that was able to grab him by the neck and we pulled him out and we were able to get him up and over the barrier and back into the field," he says.

Nixon reached down to reach around the fawn to heave it over the wall. He says the fawn was crying. 

"When Sean had it wrapped up in his arm it started making some noises, I think he was happy to get out for sure," Nixon says. 

Muir was thrilled the duo came to the animal's rescue. 

"These guys came immediately, it was really amazing." Muir says. "Not even 15 minutes and these guys were here, they came so fast it was unbelievable."

Strangely, this is not the first time Ferguson has found himself in a soup of manure – but not to this depth.

"I worked on the farm before but this is the first time I've been covered up to my neck in manure," he says.

He says he wouldn't hesitate to do it again if he saw a deer in a similar situation.

The situation was called to the BC Conservation Service but was resolved quickly by the public as a result of the social media posting. 

Nixon says it's nice to be receiving some recognition but says they would have come to the animal's rescue regardless. He's hoping the area gets fenced off.

"It kind of baffled me a bit that there was nothing at all. It's a pretty dangerous area for sure. I'm surprised more incidents like that don't happen" Nixon says.