Gulliver, one of the 13 fallow deer bucks who live at the Fallow Deer Reserve in eastern Ontario. (Jane McDonald/Fallow Deer Reserve)

Five unusual-looking deer were at large near Kingston, Ont., Friday afternoon after vandals apparently damaged the animal sanctuary where they were living.

Wendy Workman, co-founder of the Fallow Deer Reserve, is asking hunters and other people to keep an eye out for the missing deer, which belong to a species native to Europe.

"We're trying to get the word out to everyone to basically not shoot the deer," Workman said Friday. "They're owned by us, so it would be akin to someone coming in and shooting your cattle."

The missing animals are smaller than the white-tailed deer native to eastern Ontario. Fallow deer have brown fur with white spots even during adulthood, and all the missing deer are bucks, so they have paddle-like antlers similar to moose antlers.

Anyone who sees the deer is advised to feed them apples or corn to keep them calm and to call the sanctuary.Workman said she learned the deer were missing from the reserve after someone called to her say they were spotted nearby.

She discovered that someone had used bolt-cutters to make a hole sometime between 5 p.m. Thursday and 5 a.m. Friday in the 2.4-metre-high fence that surrounds the deer's 4.5-hectare enclosure.

Thirteen of the animals live in the enclosure; seven were quickly recaptured and an eighth was caught Friday afternoon.By 4 p.m. Friday, another two deer were just outside the enclosure being fed apples by reserve staff, Workman said. Meanwhile, a man was on his way with a tranquilizer gun to help catch the remaining three deer.

Workman believes that the vandals who cut the hole in the fence also chased the deer out, as they would be reluctant to leave on their own.