The rescuers, from the Szczecin Fire Department, managed to rescue 13 deer from the lake, in part by releasing them with ropes, but an estimated 19 others drowned.
“For more than 20 deer to fall into the water because of someone’s stupidity, I’ve never seen anything like it. The rescuers and I, we just stood there crying,” said Arkadiusz Borowski, a local hunter. who participated in the rescue. operation.
“Today we want to report a suspected crime, animal cruelty,” Borowski added. “We have received credible, detailed information, including the number plates and the names of those involved.”
The rescuers used boats and sleds with flat bottoms to bring the dead animals to the surface of the water, to ensure that the bodies did not contaminate the lake.
“The animals were in a herd, it made the operation more complicated, but we succeeded after hard, physical effort,” Tomasz Kubiak, a spokesman for the Szczecin fire brigade, told Polish private broadcaster TVN.