Oklahoma Elk Rescue Caught On Video

A new Oklahoma game warden spent one of his first days on the job saving an elk.

That rescue was caught on video and posted on Facebook.

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife says game warden Josey Branch recently finished his field training and Thursday got a call about a bull elk caught in a fence.  It happened in Kiowa County in southwestern Oklahoma.

Officials say the elk's antlers got caught up in a cotton bale tarp, electric fence, and a barbed wire fence and couldn't free himself.

Because it would have been dangerous for Branch to untangle the animal by hand, he shot off the elk's antlers, well above the base to break him free.  We want to be clear, Branch did not hurt the elk. 

A question you might ask, what will the elk do without his antlers?  Well, every year about this time, elk, like deer, shed their antlers and grow new ones in the summer.