Grand Forks hunter saves deer from frozen river
Marty Thomas towed the deer out of the Kettle River with a canoe on Monday night
A Grand Forks hunter jumped into action to save a deer's life Monday evening and there are pictures and videos to prove it.
Marlene Thomas shared the video of her husband, Marty, pulling the deer out of the frozen Kettle River on Facebook after they received a call that a deer had gone though the ice.
Marty says he tried walking out onto it.
"I saw a big open hole in front of me and I couldn't go any further and it was dangerous," he said.
But there were already other people there trying to help and they had a canoe.
"They brought the canoe up in a truck, we brought it down the bank and I went out with the canoe and a couple sticks, a paddle and also a diamond rope with a cinch on it to wrap around the deer somehow," he said.
Thomas says he used the canoe to pull the deer, which was too cold to put up a fight, and got it back to his truck.
He says his wife was probably nervous watching him on the sidelines.
"My dad drowned. He fell out of a canoe 10 years ago. That's a different story but my wife is thinking about that, right?" he said.
"I'm focused on getting this deer saved."
Thomas said he brought the deer back to his place, set it up in his heated mini-cabin with some hay and a blanket but by 4 a.m. it was gone.
"For 38 years, no kidding, I've been a, pardon me, just wait, it makes me emotional, I've been actually a hunting guy for 38 years and a taxidermist," Thomas told CBC News.
"It's been my whole life, I make a living off of wildlife and so to help, yeah, to give back like that was just, you know, it felt good."
With files from Cathy Kearney