Viral news / Photographer posts pic of deer with arrow through head, calls for new law

Oh deer: A photo shows an unfazed deer with an arrow sticking out of his head in Canada.

Wildlife photographer Lee-Anne Carver told The Guardian she’s seen the whitetail buck near her home in the city of Kenora, northern Ontario, for the past three years. 

The animal, who she named Carrot, is “very gentle and affectionate,” she said. 

But last week Carver’s husband noticed that a black arrow with bright green fletching had impaled Carrot’s head.

When Carver went out to investigate, Carrot seemed to act like nothing was wrong, she told the paper. 

“It was very disturbing to see,” Carver said. “But he was still acting like his normal self.”

Though local officials have promised Carver they won’t euthanize Carrot, conservation officers and hunters say removing the arrow may be more harmful than helpful — as it is likely preventing bleeding, according to the report. 

Extracting it could reopen the wound and lead to infection, experts told the Guardian.

“It’s really disturbing,” Carver said. “I want to put my hand out there and grab it and say, ‘There, I fixed you, Carrot.’ But that’s not possible.”

But a promising development came on Wednesday, when officials from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and the Ontario Provincial Police managed to cut off the top of the bolt, very close to the deer’s head, Carver wrote on a Facebook page called “Carrot the Magic Deer” — which has attracted 1,181 followers.

The bottom portion of the bolt was not cut, but “the good news is, if healing happens as suspected, the arrow will slide out freely and eventually,” Carver wrote.

“He is not ‘better,’ though you cannot see the bolt coming out of the top of his head anymore,” she wrote. “There is a risk for infection but again, should everything go as planned, he will heal and the rest of the bolt will find its way out.”