JAY – A fawn, believed to be about 1 month old, was rescued by an International Paper employee and a Jay police officer Saturday after it got caught in the river intake rack at IP’s Jay hydroelectric power plant.
The fawn was not strong enough to swim against the current after it apparently fell into the Androscoggin River, Jay police Cpl. Jeffrey Fournier said Saturday.
The racks prevent debris from going through the generating equipment of the plant, which is on Bridge Street off Route 140.
IP hydro plant operator Gary Houle heard a “blatting noise” when he was checking the plant Saturday and found the deer, Fournier said.
It is believed that the animal got stuck in the water sometime between Friday night and early Saturday, he said.
The men used a dog pole to lasso the young deer around its head, so they could reach down and bring the animal up out of the water, Fournier said.
It was shivering, he said, and its eyes were closed when they got it out of the water.
The fawn was bruised and had scratches and was bleeding on the backs of its legs and stomach, Fournier said.
They put a jacket around the animal and put him in a building at the hydro plant to warm up.
Fournier said he called a state game warden, and the warden recommended taking the animal up the river and letting it go because its mother was probably nearby.
The men put the fawn in a cage and drove to Barking Dog Mill on Route 140, and there asked Bob Whittemore if he would mind if they took the fawn near the river to let it go.
Whittemore told Fournier and Houle on Saturday that he’d seen a doe in the area and that she was probably the mother.
Whittemore said he and Donna Reed, also of Jay and also licensed in wildlife rehabilitation, would check the fawn before setting it free.
Fournier said Monday that he had checked on the fawn Sunday and Monday and the animal was doing fine.
He planned to set the fawn free Monday afternoon, Fournier said.
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