Wed. May 25, 2005 / PA Times Reporter

Dogs are deer's savior -- Two Labs act as surrogate mothers to fawn

Angel and Ebony, dogs belonging to Brent and Chris Laner of the New Philadelphia area, watch over a fawn that Chris Laner rescued. The dogs mothered the abandoned deer for a couple of days until wildlife officials were called to take over the job.

Dogs usually don’t mother fawns. But Chris and Brent Laner’s dogs – Angel, a yellow Lab, and Ebony, a black Lab – substituted for a couple of days for a newborn deer that needed a mother.
“My dog Angel has been looking for her,” Chris said of the fawn that’s since been relocated to a rehabilitation center. “I guess she got attached.”

Chris Laner said she introduced the fawn to her female dogs after a neighbor found the animal in a field near some woods off Hummel Valley Rd. about a mile from New Philadelphia’s city limit.
“The deer was bawling and had been there by itself for more than 24 hours,” Chris Laner said.

After finding that the deer was weak and hadn’t been fed for a day or two, Chris Laner took it in because its cries could have attracted predators. “We were concerned about it not surviving,” she said. “I don’t like taking things out of their element.” The Laners called Tuscarawas County Wildlife Officer John Suchora so he could relocate the fawn to a rehabilitation center where it would be fed and later released to the wild.

While waiting for him to call back, Chris said the couple fed the fawn formula made to feed puppies. Chris said they only had the fawn a couple of days and she isn’t sure what facility it was taken to. The rehabilitation center will take measures to feed the fawn and limit human contact so that some day it can be released.
“Hopefully she’ll have a chance now at being raised up and be back in her own element,” Chris said of the fawn. “I’d rather see her with her own kind, with her own mom.”