FORT SMITH, Ark. -- When a animal wouldn't leave a busy interstate, highway patrol troopers were forced to wrestle the deer to the ground, KHBS in Fort Smith reported.

The officers were then forced to put the animal down.

The station reported that mating season for the deer, along with open hunting season, means drivers likely have noticed a few more deer on the roadways in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The animals can cause thousands of dollars in damage to cars, and crashes can be deadly, so when deputies get a call that there’s one on the road, they often go to extreme measures to get them back into the forest.

This was just the case on Sunday morning near Vian, Okla., where a nine-point buck wandered onto Interstate 40.

Dashcam video shows officers from the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Office, as well as Oklahoma troopers, trying to get the buck to go back into the woods. But it kept returning.

So the deputy wrestled the animal to the ground and suffered a swift kick for his effort.

The buck was tied up and determined to be not well, so it was shot and killed.

Drivers didn’t seem to mind that the animal was killed. They said they see deer frequently, especially in rural areas.

One driver said the damage from one deer strike cost him thousands of dollars.

“Well, I hit it with a truck. It just jumped out in front of me -- $3,800,” Otis Barnes said.

Troopers said it's sad to say, but the best solution for drivers who come across a deer is to keep driving right into it.

“If you swerve to the left, you are going to hit another vehicle head-on. Even if you swerve to the right, you can hit a tree head-on, so it's better to hit the deer or lose your life or someone else," said Eric Wold with the Arkansas State Police.