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CLOUDY Temp: 56 °F Wind: NNW at 5 mph Saturday, June 21, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend May 25, 2003 New laws complicate annual I-found-a-fawn dilemma By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune A logger burning slash Monday found a young black-tailed deer fawn, barely a few days old, in fire’s way. So he whisked the fawn away from the flames, then telephoned wildlife authorities to find the apparent orphan a home. "We told him, take it back but don’t set him in the fire," state wildlife biologist Rosemary Stussy said. "We told him to sit him down in the green brush." That won’t be the last time Stussy gives her put-it-back speech in the coming weeks as kind-hearted Oregonians continue to mistakenly remove young fawns and other critters from the wild. Advertisement But the leave-them-be mantra takes on extra meaning this year because a new state policy forbids all but the real orphans of the woods from getting shipped to wildlife rehab centers. Concerns over the spread of deadly viruses now moving through western Oregon’s deer herds mean rehab centers like Wildlife Images in Merlin cannot and will not accept most fawns people bring in this spring. Wildlife Images Director David Siddon said that any orphaned deer that tests positive for the deadly adenovirus after he accepts it means not only must that deer be killed, but all other deer at the facility. The highly contagious adenovirus is similar to blue tongue and is deadly to fawns but cannot be passed to humans. Even those people who pick up a fawn after seeing its mother dead must pass a battery of questions and get an Oregon State Police incident number before Wildlife Images will even consider accepting it, Siddon said. "If there’s any chance that deer will survive, we have to tell people to take them back," Siddon said. "It makes for a difficult situation." It’s also in sharp contrast to a decade ago, when Wildlife Images routinely collected a few dozen supposedly orphaned deer each spring. Volunteers there bottle-fed the babies until they were weaned, and the young deer were normally released in the fall to fend for themselves. The I-found-a-fawn dilemma surfaces in late May as does begin to give birth to this year’s crop of fawns. A doe typically leaves her fawn to hide in the brush while she forages, then returns later to claim her offspring. Removing the suckling fawn threatens the fawn’s survival but can also threaten the doe, which will hover in an area for days in search of her fawn. The notion that a doe will reject a fawn if she smells human scent on it is false. "We say it every year, but if just one less person picks up a fawn, then it’s worth it," says Stussy, of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Central Point office. This situation is repeated along the Oregon Coast with well-meaning people picking up seemingly abandoned seal pups. Mother seals often leave their pups on the beach while they feed in the ocean. Beach-goers are asked to remain at least 100 feet from seal pups and keep dogs leashed to avoid harassing or harming young pups. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Rogue Valley Auto Finder Rogue Valley Job Finder --> Rogue Valley Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Real Estate Showcase Food for Thought Hike of the Week Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Openings Prime Times