NEWS &POLITICS
The Search Continues for a Maryland Deer Whose Head Is Stuck in a Trick-or-Treat Bucket

Local wildlife experts are racing against the clock to free the young buck before he starves.

WRITTEN BY KATE CORLISS | PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 3, 2025

Last weekend, residents at the Doncaster Village Apartments in Parkville, Maryland, noticed that one of their regular cervine visitors was sporting an unusual accessory. It was not an early Halloween costume: A young male deer had gotten his head stuck in a blue trick-or-treat pail.

Bob Swensen—the founder of Ellicott City-based Lost Animal Resource Group, which typically leads searches for missing dogs and cats—is at the helm of a community effort to track down the ensnared buck, the Washington Post reported Friday. The pursuit has so far required thermal drones, an elaborate ghillie suit, and the aid of a professional lassoer. It turns out that wrangling one of planet Earth’s most skittish creatures is not for the faint of heart, but these volunteers are pressing on.

The deer is what old hands call a “button buck”—his antlers have not yet fully developed, so in their place, he has two fur-covered nubbins. The handle of the Halloween pail is hanging from these nubbins and the bucket itself is blocking his snout, making it impossible for him to eat or drink water. Depending on the position of his head, it sometimes covers his eyes.

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