A woman has called for action after witnessing multiple deer drowning in the Bridgewater Canal. Kay Headford, from Astley, walks on the canal early every morning before work – waking up at 4.30am.
“Every day I’m going down, there are so many deer stranded in the canal, and they’re actually alive trying to get out,” Kay explained. In an effort to rescue the young animals, Kay has even got in to the canal herself. However, she has been unable to successfully rescue any deer, and has seen one drown in front of her.
The 42-year-old said: “It was just so sad, the noise and everything. It was just heartbreaking. The day after it happened again, and then the day after that it happened again.
Kay says the sides are too steep for the deer to get out (Image: Kay Headford) “I didn’t get in them few times because the sides are really high and somebody had to pull me out the day I went in because I couldn’t get out. That made me start thinking then: what if it was a child, what if it was a dog?” Sign up to our newsletters to get the latest stories sent straight to your inbox. Now, she has launched a petition for new ramps to be installed – and it has already received more than 30,000 signatures.
Kay has dressed up as a deer to try to raise awareness to those using the canal. Kay pointed to a scheme in Doncaster, where ramps were installed in 2020 after a surge of deer getting in trouble in the Stainforth and Keadby canal. Different grades of stone were used on the ed.
