Deer saved from plastic strap

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, January 27, 2026

A doe in need received a helping hand last week.

Ralph Downes, an enforcement officer with the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, said his department and the Coupeville Marshal’s Office teamed up on Friday to locate, then free, a doe from a plastic strap wrapped around its abdomen.

A resident recently spotted the doe Jan. 7 on Pennington Loop in Coupeville and uploaded a photo of it to Facebook; the News-Times contacted Fish and Wildlife for a story about the entangled deer early this month.

Brandon Reed, a deputy with the Marshal’s Office, and Kelly Denny, an officer with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, drove through neighborhoods where the doe had frequently been seen and spoke to residents in an effort to find it.

“It didn’t take him long,” Downes said of Reed. “He’d been monitoring the situation as well. We all try to work together as much as possible.”

A wildlife conflict specialist from the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife tranquilized the doe, Downes said, and Reed assisted in removing the band. Recovering from the tranquilizer took the doe only a few minutes.

Plastic bands such as the kind wrapped around the doe are commonly in the packaging of shipped items, Downes explained.

“It looked likely to increase restriction to the animal and very unlikely that it would be able to free itself,” he added.

According to a previous News-Times story, entanglements are a common occurrence when deer populations inhabit areas near people.