The plastic chicken feeder first became stuck around the deer’s neck in late October, Kristin Federer of Elkins said. (Photo Provided)

ELKINS — After three months of having a plastic chicken feeder stuck around its neck, a local deer was rescued by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources on Thursday after a concerned resident fought for its safety.

The deer was first discovered one day in late October when Kristin Federer’s husband heard a “ruckus” in their backyard. The young deer, assumed to be 5 or 6 months old at the time, had pushed her head down into Federer’s chicken feeder and became stuck.

“So it was open on the top, you could just pour the food in, and it had a little tray on the bottom where the feed would spread out,” Federer told The Inter-Mountain. “When she stuck her head down in there and got it stuck, she got the tray off, so it’s open on her neck and it goes from her shoulders, the bottom of her neck, all the way up to her chin.”

Federer, who lives close to the Davis & Elkins College campus, said the deer began practically living in her yard after the feeder became stuck, and she had seen the deer around campus. She added that many of her neighbors and other members of the community were also aware of it.

“Everyone knows about her,” Federer said. “My neighbors stopped by, ‘Have you seen the deer with a bucket on its head?’ I went to Southern States to buy deer corn, because I’ve been feeding her… and they knew about the deer, and then I went to Tractor Supply to buy chicken feed and they overheard me talking and someone there knew about the deer. So it’s kinda famous in Elkins.”

A deer is shown with a plastic chicken feeder stuck around its neck in the backyard of Kristin Federer in Elkins. (Photo Provided)

Federer told The Inter-Mountain that she first called the DNR on Oct. 28. She said her main concern was that, as the deer grows, the feeder would begin to choke her and cause her death. Federer said she believed that the deer had grown to the point that pulling the feeder off was no longer an option and it would have to be cut off to save the deer.

“It used to just be, when she lifted her head up (from eating), that the bucket would fall down and she could swallow,” Federer said. Now it had gotten “to the point that she leans her head over to pick up food, and she has to kind of shake her head around to get the chicken feeder down low enough to the point where she can swallow.”

Federer said several officials told her it would be best to shoot and kill the deer to put it out of its misery, but she didn’t feel right about doing, and she knew her young daughter and her neighbor would “not forgive that.”

Federer said she had been in contact with the DNR for months, however not much progress had been made due issues with hunting season. She was told that the only option was to sedate the deer before cutting off the feeder; however, at the time, it was hunting season and the DNR was worried that, if a human were to get hold of the deer and its meat, they could get sick.

While Federer admitted that she was aware that the agent she had been speaking to “had his hands tied” and was doing everything he was allowed to do, she was still determined to get the deer the help it needed.

West Virginia Division of Natural Resources employees work to cut the feeder off the deer’s neck after trapping and sedating her on Thursday. (Photo Provided)

On Thursday around 1:30 p.m., Federer emailed The Inter-Mountain to say that the DNR had set a trap for the deer and that she had seen it almost walk into it three times. By 2:13 p.m. Federer wrote to The Inter-Mountain again, confirming that the DNR had successfully captured and freed the deer from the feeder.

“The DNR came today and set a clover trap, captured her and cut it off of her neck,” Federer said in a social media post Thursday. “She was unharmed in the capture/removal process and is now free to roam and enjoy her life again.”

Federer thanked the DNR for their work.

“I can’t say enough good things about this, as it was my feeder and therefore my fault, and it’s been breaking my heart (and the hearts of my kids) for months,” Federer wrote.