The young fawn who was rescued from a pit on a work site in north Red Deer last week has been euthanized after all efforts to bring the little one around were exhausted.
Carol Kelly, executive director of the Medicine River Wildlife Centre, said they were concerned about the animal’s blindness and a dislocated shoulder muscle that did not want to heal.
A veterinarian confirmed the animal would likely be permanently blind and the shoulder muscle was actually ripped away from the bone.
Surgery would not help and the blindness cemented the fact the humane thing to do was put the animal to sleep.
“Around here we take things in stride,” said Kelly. “It was sad but had we got her sooner it would not have been so extreme. We don’t know how long she was down there.”
The fawn, about three weeks old, was rescued on July 4 from a hole that measured 35 cm wide and two-metre deep by a Nason Earthworks crew on a site on the City of Red Deer Wastewater Treatment site in north Red Deer.
She was taken to the wildlife centre for treatment.
In unrelated wildlife news, the little skunk who was shot with an arrow and admitted to the centre last week died the same evening.
Kelly said 60 per cent of the animals that come into the centre are released while the other 40 per cent are euthanized.