The rescue workers, from the Szczecin Fire Department, managed to rescue 13 deer from the lake, in part by lassoing them with ropes, but an estimated 19 others would have drowned.
“That more than 20 deer fell into the water because of someone’s stupidity, I’ve never seen anything like it. The rescuers and I 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,” added Borowski. “We have received credible, detailed information, including license plate numbers and names of the individuals involved.”
The rescuers used flat-bottomed boats and sleds to bring the dead animals to the surface of the water, to keep the bodies from contaminating the lake.
“The animals were in a herd, this made the operation more complicated, but we managed, after strenuous physical exertion,” Tomasz Kubiak, a spokesman for the Szczecin Fire Department, told Polish private broadcaster TVN.