Video: Arizona cowboys lasso deer trapped in canal

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Two cowboys are being credited with coming to the rescue of a deer stuck in an Arizona canal.

The state Game and Fish Department received several calls Thursday reporting a deer was trapped in a canal near Lake Pleasant, northwest of Phoenix.

The animal apparently slipped into the cold water and couldn't scale the canal's steep, concrete walls to get out.

When Officers arrived at the Central Arizona Project canal, several men described as cowboys appeared out of nowhere and threw out their ropes to save the deer, CBS affiliate WGCL reports.

"This is what it's all about with Arizona Game and Fish and the citizens here in Arizona that are concerned, like those two cowboys," Rueben Gonzales with Arizona Game and Fish told WGCL. "(They) took time out of their day to do this rescue and assist us with this rescue."

Video the agency posted on YouTube shows one man standing on a bridge above the canal and dropping a lasso around the deer's antlers as it swims below.

Gonzales says Game and Fish officers then carried the stressed, shivering animal out of the water and loaded it into a truck. They then took it to Lake Pleasant Regional Park and released it.

The deer regained its composure after about 20 minutes and ran off.

"This is what it's all about with Arizona Game and Fish and the citizens here in Arizona that are concerned, like those two cowboys," Rueben Gonzales with Arizona Game and Fish told "(They) took time out of their day to do this rescue and assist us with this rescue."