Animal

A baby deer is sporting a pink cast after being found abandoned with a broken leg


Alex is sporting a cast (Picture: Edith Allen Sanctuary / SWNS)

An adorable baby deer who was found abandoned with a broken leg is now sporting a bright pink cast.

Little Alex was discovered limping through downtown Asheville, North Carolina, USA, last month.

Rescuers believe the beautiful fawn was separated from her mother and hit by a car, which snapped her right back leg just below the hip bone.

The two-month-old was taken in by Edith Allen Wildlife Sanctuary in Asheville, NC, which is home to eight other abandoned baby deer as well as birds, chipmunks and squirrels.

Alex was fitted with the colourful cast and prescribed two weeks of house rest.

Co-founder of the sanctuary Gwen Landt, 60, said: ‘It was heartbreaking to see.

‘Alex kept trying to run.

She was found abandoned with a broken leg (Picture: Edith Allen Sanctuary / SWNS)

‘She had a broken leg but she wanted to stand up.

‘Wild animals are amazing when it comes to pain – they keep persevering through it all.’

Three weeks later, Alex is still in her cast – a purple one this time.

‘We built her a special box so she can stand up and get a bit of exercise,’ Gwen said.

‘She can’t run yet but I do believe in time we will be able to release her.’

Gwen has dedicated her life to looking after real-life Bambis – fawns who have lost their mothers and are left to fend for themselves in the wild.

She said: ‘They are here because their mothers were killed or they were chased by dogs or they were found in a river.

‘These animals may look adorable but their background stories are really not sweet.’

She’s being well looked after (Picture: Edith Allen Sanctuary / SWNS)

She added that she hoped she could inform people when to pick up animals and when to leave them in nature.

‘We are trying to teach people when and when not to interfere with baby animals,’ she said.

‘There are signs to look for.

‘When the mama is taking care of her baby, she leaves it in the ground and it curls up like a little croissant so the mother can go off and find food.

‘She leaves the baby because it doesn’t have any scent for a predator to detect.

‘People often come across the baby deer and they think, “oh, it doesn’t have a parent, I’ll rescue it”.

‘But they should wait to see if the mother comes back.

‘I don’t think humans realise the impact they have on wildlife.

‘We are taking over every place that animals have to live.

‘We are building homes and putting up shopping centres and destroying their natural habitat.’

Gwen has run the sanctuary since 2009 with her husband David, 68, and her daughter, Jocelyn, 24.

They aim to release fawns back into the wild as soon as they are capable of surviving without human help.

Gwen said: ‘When we find a little baby, we see what the injuries are, we bottle feed them and we get them back on their feet again.

‘They move into the barn with other fawns.

‘They are loving animals, they start licking and caring for each other.

‘When the fawn gets weaned off the bottle totally, we take them to a location for a soft release.

‘Everyday they are walked up the mountain and taken back to the barn in the evening.

‘Eventually you leave the barn door open and they don’t come back.’

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