It was July 2019 when Colorado wildlife officers took notice of a bull elk wearing an old tire around its neck. Two years later, they finally seized their opportunity to free the animal from the tire, CBS 4 reported Tuesday (October 12).
Patrick Hemstreet called Colorado Parks and Wildlife to his home Saturday night (October 9) after he spotted the elusive elk in his yard. Apparently, it's a regular around Hemstreet's neighborhood, which is located off Pine Valley Road.
“I’d see him in my yard all the time,” Hemstreet told reporters. “We felt bad for the thing.”
CPW's Dawson Swanson, who's been working tirelessly to capture the elk, finally tranquilized ahead of Hemstreet's discovery. The two men teamed up to track down the sedated animal. Hemstreet says they were going to saw off the tire, but they couldn't do it.
“It was tight removing it,” CPW's Scott Murdoch recounted. He reportedly delivered extra sedatives for the elk. "It was not easy for sure, we had to move it just right to get it off because we weren’t able to cut the steel in the bead of the tire. Fortunately, the bull’s neck still had a little room to move."
So, the officers opted to remove the elk's antlers to get the tire off. Murdoch explained that they would've preferred to leave the antlers for rutting activity, "but the situation was dynamic and we had to just get the tire off in any way possible."
Surprisingly, the bull elk's neck was in great condition.
“The hair was rubbed off a little bit, there was one small open wound maybe the size of a nickel or quarter, but other than that it looked really good,” Murdoch said. “I was actually quite shocked to see how good it looked.” He also said there were 10 pounds of debris inside the tire.
CPW is considering keeping the antlers and the tire as education tools. The agency also reminded the public about keeping your property free of objects wildlife can get caught up in or hurt by.
Read more about the amazing story here.