Bright yellow ropes twisted around the antlers of a majestic elk while the blue toddler’s swing dangled in front of the bull’s head. A photo of the elk shared by the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office went viral on social media last month.
Local law enforcement received a flood of phone calls about the elk which prompted the N.C. Wildlife Resource Commission to help remove the swing. Photo courtesy of the Haywood Sheriff’s Office.
Haywood Sheriff Bill Wilke, who has held the office since 2022, said calls about elk don’t happen often and they get objects tangled in their antlers even more infrequently.
“There was one point, a year or two back when something similar happened with a hammock, I think,” Wilke, who is up for re-election, said…