A Regina police officer had to put a deer out of its misery after it was struck by a vehicle this morning.

The Regina Police Service says a truck travelling along the Highway one bypass near the Assiniboine Avenue off-ramp hit a deer around 4:30 a.m.

The driver wasn't hurt -- but the deer was in bad shape.

No one from Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management was available that early -- so the officers had to shoot it.

Edited by CJME's Karen Brownlee.