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They’re calling her Elsa, from the Disney film “Frozen.” And like her namesake, she survived the ice — but just barely.
A young deer was fighting for her life after falling through thin ice into a freezing river at Southaven County Park in Yaphank. By the time rescuers reached her, the doe had stopped struggling, her body floating on its side, with her nose and mouth barely above the water.
Leading the rescue was Frank Floridia of Strong Island Animal Rescue, who boarded a small boat and began chipping away at what seemed the length of a football field of inch-thick ice separating him from the deer.
With Floridia painstakingly hacking a path forward, wildlife rescuer Ryan Gilmartin of the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center used an oar to push the boat along, inch by inch.
“It took a lot of endurance and speed, and we knew that it was a life-or-death situation in the end and we pulled it off,” Floridia told News 12 Long Island.
Saved just in time
When they finally reached Elsa, she was barely conscious. Floridia snatched the wide-eyed deer into his arms and hoisted her onto the boat. On shore, additional rescuers tugged the boat back back to shore.
Gilmartin knew the rescue crew had no time to lose.
“I saw the signs that she was still alive but suffering the effects of severe hypothermia,” he told News 12 Long Island. “At that point, I knew I needed to get her back as quick as possible, back in my car, so I could start warming her up while en route to the hospital.”
Suffolk County Police assisted at the scene, and Floridia emphasized just how close Elsa had come to dying.
“Another minute and a half, she definitely would not have made it,” he said.
Rescuers said they hope the doe will be strong enough to return to the wild in the coming days.
Top image: Facebook/Strong Island Animal Rescue
