It was anything but an ordinary day on the job for a Naperville police officer when he responded to a car accident caused by a deer on Memorial Day.
When Officer Matt Minuth arrived at the scene of the accident, he discovered the deer that was struck was a pregnant doe.
“And as I was walking up, I noticed that the deer was giving birth,” said Minuth. “So there was a live fawn now right in front of me, which obviously I wasn’t expecting. The mother was already decisively perished, so yeah that was a bit of a surprise.”
By the time Christine Maybach, an Animal Control officer, showed up, Minuth had wrapped the surviving newborn calf in a towel in his patrol car.
Maybach realized the fawn had broken her leg in the collision and transported the animal to Oaken Acres Wildlife Center, a non-for-profit in Sycamore for rehabilitation.
“Deer are hit on a daily basis in the State of Illinois,” said Maybach. “It is doe season and fawn season right now so a lot of the does are going to be up and very active. So them crossing the roads are going to be very high. So having a collision with them definitely is going to be extremely high during the season.”
Maybach says to be aware of deer not just near prairies and forests, but also in residential areas.
And though Officer Minuth went above and beyond to help the injured fawn, Maybach said calling Animal Control is the safest course of action for both the animal and yourself.
Oaken Acres said the fawn’s leg is healing on schedule and it has started eating from a bottle as of May 31. She will eventually be released on site at Oaken Acres.
Naperville News 17’s Casey Krajewski reports.
