I am getting FLOODED with private comments about a recent video that went viral showing someone holding a fawn on its back and petting its tummy. The person mistakenly thinks that the fawn is crying because he doesnt want to be put down and in fact, likes the belly rubs. As a long time, large volume fawn rehabber, I can tell you this is not the case. Wild prey animals do not enjoy being on their backs getting belly rubs. Other than that one misunderstanding, the guys were doing the right thing by moving the fawn out of harms way and returning it to the mom. Here is what I wrote on their page to try to explain the situation. There are SO many comments being posted on our wildlife page due to this video that I feel I need to reply here. I am the largest licensed fawn rehabilitator in SC with many years of fawn experience with hundreds of fawns. No wild animals in the wild (yes, there are some exceptions when the wild mom is in captivity) will reject their young simply because a human had touched it. I have many accounts of people returning animals as we have directed. The people have witnessed the reunion in many cases so we are not making assumptions. The concern that I would like to express is that the only defense that a fawn, which is a prey animal) has at this age is to freeze. Being held on his back is a kill position to a prey animal. So he is freezing. He has no other option. At the point in the video where he cries out, hes in the middle of a mid-air turn......very scary to him because he has no idea what is going to happen next. Had they put him down at that point, he would have run off crying to find his mom. I think these were kind people doing their best to save a fawn from a situation that could have caused its death. And they gave it back to the mom, as they should have. My only concern is the misinterpretation of the situation because I fear that it will cause people to think that a wild prey animal, like a fawn, might like to be rolled on its back like a dog for a belly rub, and this is simply not true. Please do not EVER purposely do this. Thank you, guys, for rescuing the fawn from danger and returning it to its mom. For that, you rock!!! https://m.facebook/story.php?story_fbid=10152456401467550&substory_index=0&id=57780972549
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 16:14:00 +0000