It’s not unusual to hit animals on the road on VanIsle. In 2017, ICBC recorded more than 2,000 incidents where cars crashed into animals on the road. The animals get hurt. Sometimes people get hurt. And it always feels terrible.
But last week, one of these crashes had a tiny happy ending thanks to the quick thinking of a BC conservation officer.
Sgt. Stuart Bates was called to check out a doe that had been hit by a car in the south end of Parksville. The doe was pregnant.
After realizing the doe was dying, he humanely put her to rest before performing an emergency C-section to save her baby.
It was a long shot. But he had to try.
“This is very rare to happen. The fawn had to have been a day or two [away from] being born anyway, or it wouldn’t have worked,” Bates told CTV News.
But lo and behold, the baby lived.
“I knew I had a couple minutes, so I had a knife and just very quickly did a C-section and was able to find a fawn and pull it out,” said Bates.
From there, he was able to give the fawn a good rub down and get it breathing. Then he wrapped it up and took it to the vet.
The vet confirmed the fawn was in good health. They gave the baby some milk and then brought her to a family-run goat farm to be fostered for the next few months.
She’s reportedly very healthy and happy and doing remarkably well with her new goat family.
The fawn, who the family has now named “Hazel,” will continue to stay with the family until she’s grown enough to be moved to a deer rehabilitation centre. She’ll hopefully be released into the wild next fall.
Want a daily dose of dopamine? Keep updated on Hazel on this YouTube channel. The family will be documenting her adorable day-to-day shenanigans until she’s released!
