Call it animal instinct.
Call it animal instinct: A dog saw a fawn in the waters off Long Island, N.Y., on Sunday, and darted into the harbor to pull the young deer to shore.
Mark Freeley told WCBS-TV that he and his English golden retriever, Storm, were walking along the Long Island Sound when Storm spotted the deer in danger of drowning.
The dog “plunged into the water and started swimming out to the fawn, grabbed it by the neck, and started swimming to shore, ” said Freeley, who whipped out his camera to capture the moment.
“Good boy, Storm, ” Freeley says in the video before the deer darts off, with Storm following close behind.
“Leave him, Storm! It’s OK, ” Freeley says before the fawn lies down.
Storm then “started nudging (the deer) , and started pulling it to make sure she was gonna be OK I guess, ” Freeley told the station.
Freeley called experts to attend to the fawn. But when workers from the Strong Island Animal Rescue League arrived on the beach, the deer darted back into the water again.
The humans went for the rescue this time.
„I really didn’ t have much of a choice, ” Frank Floridia of the Rescue League told The New York Daily News . „If I didn’ t go in the water, the deer would’ ve died.”
It took some rope and a few minutes to wrestle the fawn back to safety. The deer had suffered bruises and cuts to the head and carried ticks, Floridia told the newspaper.
Rescuers delivered the deer to a Long Island nonprofit for rescued animals called the Star Foundation, “where it was treated in stable condition, ” the Daily News reported.
The animal is expected to recover in a few months before being released, Floridia said.
Follow Josh Hafner on Twitter: @joshhafner
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