It survived two hours in freezing cold waters of the Gatineau River; two Wakefield men risked their own safety to save her from drowning; but after all that effort the doe that made this paper’s front page was dropped off in the forest to die of hypothermia.
After the daring March 9 boat rescue of a struggling deer that had fallen through the ice of the Wakefield bay, arriving conservation officers said they would most likely shoot the injured doe to put it out of its misery.
But according Michel Bergeron, director of the Gatineau office for Wildlife Protection Services of Quebec, conservation officers instead dropped her in a quiet part of the Gatineau Park, hoping the animal would get up and walk away in the night.
When they returned the morning of March 10, ravens were eating the carcass. When asked why the animal wasn’t put down immediately, Bergeron replied, “We hoped that it would make it.”
He said the deer died from hypothermia. Bergeron also said that officers weren’t sure if the doe was pregnant, as previously thought, but that if it were, a combination of stress and an underdeveloped fetus would have caused a miscarriage.
“There was no possibility of letting the mom give birth in that condition. In March, the fetus is not completely developed and ready to go.” Most deer give birth in May or June.
Milton Grace and Joey Chamberlin of Wakefield saw the deer struggling to pull itself out of the water and back onto the ice the morning of March 9. Unwilling to watch it drown, Grace paddled up in a kayak, while Chamberlin pushed an old tin fishing boat along the ice’s thin surface. The two managed to haul the deer into the fishing boat and paddled it to shore. They covered it with a blanket to keep warm, its leg damaged and bleeding. Conservation officers showed up ten minutes later and took the deer away.
Grace was disappointed with the way officers ultimately dealt with the deer he rescued. “If they did it that way, I wouldn’t be happy with that solution,” said Grace, adding that it would have been almost impossible for the deer to survive on its own with a nasty wound on its leg. He feels that the animal should have been put out of its misery.
“It was my hope that they would have at least brought it out to the woods and put it down.”
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The deer could have been taken to a sanctuary such as Aspen Valley near Huntsville. There it would have been nursed back to health and released in Quebec.
Government conservation officers are the world’s biggest idiots. Someone should be disciplined for this.
So after reading how this deer was left to die what does it say about calling in the experts and specialists when one finds a wounded wild animal? To me it says volumes!! This is a damn shame!
For the two men who risked their lives I think the world of you both.
Common sense would seem to indicate that any rescued animal would be taken to a sanctuary to heal before being released or an option of living in the sanctuary if there are too injured to be put back in the wild again.
The article seems to be torn between “fend for yourself and left to die” or “be shot in the head”. What kind of limited world do we live in when those are the only two choices people can think of?
The Wildlife Protection service should have protocols and resources in place to either keep an animal indoors until it warms up in their own facilities or barring that work with a sanctuary or other type of organization that is capable of offering these services. I’m sure there are plenty of people willing to be “foster parents” if need be to get these animals back on their feet if people were asked.
Nothing can be done for the deer that died but hopefully we can learn from this unnecessary tragedy to change procedures/protocols to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
This leaves me wondering, who in fact, made the decision to leave this said animal in the Gatineau Park ..
The Wildlife Protection Services of Quebec or the conservation officers?
Two plus two, if the Wildlife Protection Services of Quebec gave the order to release the animal back into the wild, it should have survived. If the animal was injured, it should have been nursed back to health, then released. If the animal had no chance of survival, it should have received a humane termination.
If the conservation officers made the call, they are truly unknowledgeable and should not have any authority in regards to wildlife in our Gatineau Park.
To be sure, our wildlife must be protected (to defend or guard from attack, invasion, loss, annoyance, insult, etc.; cover or shield from injury or danger) and this duty must be provided by the Wildlife Protection Services of Quebec, for the wildlife in Quebec.
Therefore, throwing a deer (a doe) back into the woods after having survived two hours in freezing cold waters resulting in hypothermia, after aquiring visible injuries and wounds and quite possibly after having a miscarriage, is sickening.
Knowing an animal suffered unnecessarily under the authority of the Wildlife Protection Services of Quebec, should be punishable by law.
If the conservation officers made the call, they are truly unknowledgeable and should not have any authority in regards to INJURED wildlife in our Gatineau Park.
Constance Creek Wildlife Refuge is a new charity based in the west end of Ottawa. We are now launching a public awareness and fundraising campaign. Our first priority for funding is to build a clinic and enclosures for rehabilitating deer. There are very few wildlife organizations that take in deer and with all the collisions with deer that happen in this region, we feel there is an urgent need. Lots of fawns are orphaned when their mother is hit by a car, and other deer are injured by fences or other human inventions.
We’ll have a display up in Billing’s Bridge Mall this Sunday and we are having a big Open House in celebration of National Wildlife Week on the weekend of April 10th and 11th. Please help us spread the word so that we can help out whenever a deer is in need of care.