Fawn Injured By Hit-And-Run Driver Receiving Healing Care
BY CLAIRE GALOFARO/Bristol Herald Courier
The rescued fawn lies in a basket Friday as it awaits transport to Nickelsville, Va., for rehabilitation and eventual release back into the wild.
BY CLAIRE GALOFARO
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
BRISTOL, Va. – A spotted, 5-week-old deer got off to a rough start Friday: While strolling a lonely stretch of Stagecoach Road with his mother about 8:30 a.m., a car plowed him over. The driver who hit him just kept going.
But a good Samaritan saw the accident, called it in and waited by the young fawn’s side until the cavalry came.
Lucky for the fawn, the cavalry happened to be Bristol Virginia Animal Control Officer Lisa Holly.
“He was laying out in the middle of the road, near death,” Holly said. “I thought we would have to put him down on scene. Normally, we probably would have shot him.”
But as Holly wrapped him in a blanket to move him to the shoulder, he started coming back to life.
“I was close to crying,” she said. “He was such an awkward, bendy little thing with long, spindly legs. It broke my heart. But, then he got more alert, started moving around.”
The fawn, a spitting image of Bambi, weighed around 10 pounds, she guessed, and was just a couple feet long. His only obvious injuries were little cuts on his face and legs. It is unknown if his mother was injured; she ran from the scene, although Holly suspected that she was watching from the trees.
Determined to save the fawn, who couldn’t walk, Holly packed him in the truck and took him to the Jones Animal Hospital for treatment.
Then the question became where he would go for long-term rehabilitation.
The hospital called Alanna Dingus, a Nickelsville, Va.-based wildlife rehabilitation specialist who agreed to take him in and nurse him back to health.
Dingus and Holly plotted a fawn-exchange for 6:20 p.m.
Holly, off-duty since 4 p.m., drove her personal red sports car to the meeting, with the deer nestled in a crate in the back. The women parked next to each other, petting the deer and smiling for photos. Then Dingus put him in her minivan and drove him to his new home.
Dingus said she would start by keeping him in a small pen and feeding him by bottle. With time, he’ll be able to wander her woods on his own, coming back only for meals. Eventually, she’ll set him free.
“I’ll try to get him completely weaned by Aug. 1,” she said. “Then he can assimilate, get wild again before hunting season. By then, he’ll be big enough to eat on his own, run fast enough to protect himself and go out and get good and fat before winter.”
Dingus works at a veterinary hospital and saves wild animals for free in her off time.
“It’s just fun, a hobby,” Dingus said. “I actually pay $10 a year to keep my license.”
The fawn is now in good company. Dingus is caring for two raccoons, a wild turkey, a couple other fawns, squirrels and rabbits.
“He’s got some head trauma,” she said, “but since this just happened, he probably has a good chance of being able to be back into the wild. We just hope he gets better.”
| (276) 645-2531
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Reader Reactions
Baby boomer your crazy. Go to prison huh for hitting an animal. Or anything living for that matter. What about when a butterfly hits your windshield and die? Or if you run over a mouse or rat. Do you stop? Im sure you dont. To say someone should go to prison for life for hitting and animal and keep on going is the dumbest thing i think i have ever heard in my life. You should be locked up for even saying such a thing.Im a big time animal lover but im not in anyway gonna risk my life and others to get out of my car on a busy highway and check on some potentially rabid animal i just hit. Its ludicrous. Not to mention dangerous. Your a first class dummy. All the way around dummy. Lots of you all that have commented about this are compassionless when it comes to human life but your going all out for an animal. Give me a break.
I would agree anyone that would hit a deer and simply drive off is more than a little callous and needs to develop a sense of compassion.
As for the lady that contacted animal control, she certainly did the right thing and her neighbors should be glad to have her around. Holly it seems also made a good decision not to put the animal down at the scene as it recovered from being knocked senseless by the auto. Obviously the Samaritan, Holly and Alanna are all wonderfully caring people!
However, in the interest of wild animals, sometimes people get in the way of the natural ability of animals to take care of themselves. I would suggest that after discovering only minor cuts and scrapes as injuries, the fawn should have been placed safely off of the road and let the fawn’s mother return to care for the animal. Her intuition was right that the mother was observing close by. Young animals are by design very flexible, resilient and tend to recover quickly from these type of accidents. My guess was the fawn was initially knocked out and stunned. As it regained it’s senses, the mother would certainly have found and cared for the animal.
As we continue to shrink the natural areas, our paths will only cross more often with wild animals. Be respectful of them, give them the right of way as you would any pedestrian and do some thinking before you take that animal out of it’s natural environment to the vet….
Anyone who hits a defenseless animal and keeps driving should go to prison for life. No different than all the big he-man hunters in this area who love to take their guns and slaughter innocent animals for the fun of it. They are sick, disgusting and depraved.
BJ—After reading your comments on here I have a good idea what the initials stand for—You have called anyone who does not agree with you mental, warped, confused, and in need of being fired—You also insulted a young lady by saying she is unworthy of being what you consider your housmaid and “breeding stock”—I’m sure she is ‘devastated’ by that—Have you heard of pulling to the side of the road? I know, it could be DANGEROUS—Who knows what diseases a fawn might carry—And besides, a Guy could get a gnat in his eye or something—You,Sir?, are an embarrassment to Men in the Tri-Cities—Good thing you’re not a hunter—Who knows what diseases you could bring into the family when you bring in the new ‘Mount’ to hang on the wall as your proof of Manhood—
Hey Switch, how do we know if an animal is dead? Like i said its too freaking dangerous to get out in the middle of the road and look see. Why is it some of you would risk your life over an animal but not a human? To me that is mental. I cant get some of you animal rights people. Its absurd. I love animals but just not into risking my life in the middle of the road for them. Its not sane. As far as the logging goes, our wildlife have plenty of land. Some of you people are warped. Im an animal lover, just not into dying for them. I would die for my family, but not a skunk lol. Some of you need to get in the real world here.
To ride off and leave a not dead animal on the road is the sign of a distrubed mental person. Yes we are taken over the animals home land. Just like the White man took the land from the Indians and killed most of them off.
Wonder what some of your comments might have said in the 1700 and 1800’s ?
You know,if WE would quit clear cutting and logging so WE can have a big fancy house or a nice big mall,things like this wouldn’t happen happen half as much as they do.These things are caused by GREED!Wild animals are starving to death because people are taking all their land and their food sources as well.What do you expect these defensless animals to do??They have to come out into our roads and yards now to find food.Yes,I have kids,too.Three of em.And I still slow down to see if there’s anything I can do when some moron hits an animal and doesn’t stop to see what they’ve done.If we’re taking their home’s,I think it’s the least we can do.
The term “hit and run”, as far as I know, does not just apply to people and property. Beisides as I said before compassion is a part of human nature, if you don’t have any compassion then you might as well not be human.
This story has one of the most irresponsible headlines I have seen on this site. A person is not a hit and run driver when he or she hits a wild animal and keeps driving. This phrase should only be used when referring to human victims or property damage - not a deer, no matter how “Bambi” like it is!
Just so everyone knows, I have a baby that turns a year old next month, but I still have enough feelings that after I ensure safety of family that i check on what I hit, whether it be a deer, cat, dog or whatever. My family comes first, too, but have a thought for the animals of GODs creation that don’t know any better.
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