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darren calabrese/the canadian press
After running loose downtown, a tranquilized deer lays in the back of an Animal Services van yesterday as Toronto Police assess the scene near University Avenue and Dundas Street.
Bambi’s trip downtown abruptly ended when she was drugged, Tasered and then thrown into the back of a police truck.
Oh dear, where to begin?
The intrepid deer’s tour of the city core — including a jaunt by Union Station and some Bay Street financial towers — finished on a small grass patch on Edward Street yesterday, where she lay behind some shrubs in the shadow of a multi-storey commercial building.
From about 7 a.m., she remained there for more than four hours as the city around her came to a standstill: A steady stream of gawkers pointed and stared, snapping pictures on cellphones. A horde of camera crews, everyone from CBC to MTV, captured the nervous creature’s movements and twitches.
The whole time, a fleet of police officers stood by, several from the city’s Emergency Task Force, expanding their perimeter while trying to figure out how to catch the animal.
But the standoff ended in a matter of minutes when Graham Crawshaw, a senior veterinarian with the Toronto Zoo, shot the doe with a tranquilizer. The stunned animal jumped up but was confronted by two officers holding a net. She dashed to Chestnut Street, leaping over yellow police tape, before being zapped by a police Taser.
As officers wrapped her in a net, construction workers standing on top of a partially built structure heckled.
“I should have just brought my bow,” electrician Mike Gavros said.
A fellow worker responded: “I’ve already ordered the barbecue.”
An hour later, the doe — still a bit unnerved from the excitement and the sedatives — was released in a wooded area south of Leslieville.
But officials are still wondering where the doe came from and how she managed to make it downtown unscathed.
Oh dear, where to begin?
The intrepid deer’s tour of the city core — including a jaunt by Union Station and some Bay Street financial towers — finished on a small grass patch on Edward Street yesterday, where she lay behind some shrubs in the shadow of a multi-storey commercial building.
From about 7 a.m., she remained there for more than four hours as the city around her came to a standstill: A steady stream of gawkers pointed and stared, snapping pictures on cellphones. A horde of camera crews, everyone from CBC to MTV, captured the nervous creature’s movements and twitches.
The whole time, a fleet of police officers stood by, several from the city’s Emergency Task Force, expanding their perimeter while trying to figure out how to catch the animal.
But the standoff ended in a matter of minutes when Graham Crawshaw, a senior veterinarian with the Toronto Zoo, shot the doe with a tranquilizer. The stunned animal jumped up but was confronted by two officers holding a net. She dashed to Chestnut Street, leaping over yellow police tape, before being zapped by a police Taser.
As officers wrapped her in a net, construction workers standing on top of a partially built structure heckled.
“I should have just brought my bow,” electrician Mike Gavros said.
A fellow worker responded: “I’ve already ordered the barbecue.”
An hour later, the doe — still a bit unnerved from the excitement and the sedatives — was released in a wooded area south of Leslieville.
But officials are still wondering where the doe came from and how she managed to make it downtown unscathed.
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