And then that’s when I seen the feet coming out the side of the doe

June 22, 2016 10:39 AM

Hunter and apparently uber-Canadian Sean Steele performs a C-section on a pregnant roadkill deer. (Article and pics only, SFW)
posted by raider (22 comments total)

Have checked, is also SFFawn.
posted by howfar at 10:47 AM on June 22, 2016 [5 favorites]

In the days since, Friday has taken well to her formula and learned not to suckle on her roommate, a male fawn named Trooper, said Angelika Langen, founder of the Northern Lights Wildlife Society.

“All is good on our end,” Langen said on the phone in the midst of a bear release.

posted by ChuraChura at 11:15 AM on June 22, 2016 [6 favorites]

Though it’s the first time he performed a C-section, it’s not the first time Sean cut a living creature out of an animal. On a fishing trip he opened a jackfish and found a live perch, which went on to live for weeks after he plopped it in a stream.

It's nice that they kept in touch.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:17 AM on June 22, 2016 [37 favorites]

From my experience perch are pretty good like that. But trout? Those guys are dicks. No Christmas cards, nothing.
posted by raider at 11:28 AM on June 22, 2016 [5 favorites]

I wouldn't be surprised if Sean is related to proto-uber-Canadian Supt. Sam Steele (of the North West Mounted Police.)
posted by lumberbaron at 11:51 AM on June 22, 2016

That's a great story. Good job, dude.
posted by suelac at 11:58 AM on June 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've never performed emergence deer C-sections, but I do have a recent cute baby deer story. I was mowing my lawn last week when a baby deer popped out of the bushes. While I stopped to struggle to get my phone out of my pocket, the baby deer started chasing after my dog. I called after my dog, and the deer came running to me instead. I scooped it up, and managed to show it off to the kids for a few minutes and photo ops before returning it to where I found it. We've had baby deer in year's past on our property which may indicate that we have something of a nursery.
posted by xmattxfx at 12:11 PM on June 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

My kind of human.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 12:11 PM on June 22, 2016

There has been a very similar thing involving a dead mother shark who washed up on a beach in the news lately.
posted by anastasiav at 12:12 PM on June 22, 2016

Our cat, Quill (RIP), was a pregnant stray when we found her in Canada. She went into labor right before our ten hour drive home and continued to hold it in until we got home.

Almost as soon as we got home the kittens started coming. After about the fifth kitten popped out, the next one started coming feet first and then just stopped. So Quill was sitting their obviously in discomfort, with two little feet and half a torso sticking out of her. We waited a few minutes, hoping the issue would take care of itself, but it didn't. We knew this wasn't good. At this point it was very late on a Sunday night and we managed to get through to an animal ER. I think it was Angel Memorial. So there's my wife with the phone (corded land-line) on her shoulder as the ER guy was talking her through what to do. They had her smear some Vaseline between momma and kitten and then basically pull on the legs until the kitten popped out like a champagne cork. Which it did. She then gave birth to two more after that one, thankfully they weren't breaches.

Not as heroic as a highway C-section with a Buck Knife, but still pretty damn gnarly to witness.
posted by bondcliff at 12:24 PM on June 22, 2016 [6 favorites]

Oh great. Whenever one of the students would ask why William Stafford didn't just perform a C-Section on that deer, my stock answer was that such a delicate thing was clearly impossible given the circumstances and doesn't that just make the scene that much sadder? Pathos. Limits of human ability when confronted with the omnipresent, see?

But that one guy did it for Friday, Mr Notyou. What about that?

Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.

By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.

My fingers touching her side brought me the reason—
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.

The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;
under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

I thought hard for us all—my only swerving—,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.

posted by notyou at 12:55 PM on June 22, 2016 [5 favorites]

Maybe after they release the deer back into the wild, he can go hunting for her and finish the job!

♫ it's the circle of life....♫

(yeah..I'm being that guy. But my brain just can't resolve acts of compassion like this with hunters and conservationism. )
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 12:59 PM on June 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

Well, that guy's knife isn't legal, but I guess we can grandfather it in under the Saved A Cute Baby Deer Statute of 1934.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:15 PM on June 22, 2016 [3 favorites]

My sow started delivering her first litter somewhere around 2 a.m., and the first few piglets were fine. Piglets are supposed to come out like watermelon seeds, with little effort, but by 2:30, Tiggy was straining and making unhappy squeals. I looked at my husband and said, "You ave to go in there." He gloved up, I lubed his elbow-length glove, and he reached inside to feel a stuck piglet--not feet first, but front feet tucked back along her belly. He pulled. Hard. And out came the piglet, followed, shortly after by several more slime-covered little ones. They all made it. Standing there, I knew exactly what had to happen and roughly why, even though I am a relative pig newbie when it comes to labor and delivery; I had clarity when I needed it most. My hat is off Sean Steele for taking a quick and correct decision, and for having the tool, skills, and presence of mind to save that fawn. He knew what was needed and he did it. Bravo, sir.
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:41 PM on June 22, 2016 [4 favorites]

Cool story...strange comment at the end from him stating that hunters are the best conservationists. Weird, since many hunters I have encountered hate those "hippie tree huggers" but okay.
posted by agregoli at 3:21 PM on June 22, 2016

That's kind of a standard line from hunters, and there's some truth to it.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:30 PM on June 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Hunters tend to have a vested interest in making sure their species of interest stays at a large enough population to enable continued hunting, and in making sure that ecosystems are stable enough that they continue supporting those populations and stay interesting for hunting. They also tend to make heavy use of rural unprotected, or loosely protected land. They also supply a lot of money to the fish and wildlife departments through licensing. Hunting is certainly not the only way to do conservation, and probably not the most effective (animals that you can't hunt are still important to conserve and keep around), but it has an important role to play in North American conservation. It should probably also play an important role in conservation policy and action in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
posted by ChuraChura at 4:03 PM on June 22, 2016 [6 favorites]

Also, a lot of hunters are in more regular contact with conserved land than otherwise conservation-minded folks who don't go out hiking all the time, or similar.
posted by ChuraChura at 4:04 PM on June 22, 2016 [4 favorites]

There's a reason why those Ducks Unlimited people want ducks to be unlimited.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 4:21 PM on June 22, 2016 [3 favorites]

:,D
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:52 PM on June 22, 2016

This was also the plot of an episode of Doogie Howser.
posted by entropone at 8:51 PM on June 22, 2016

Hunters who hunt on their own land plant a lot of stuff that encourages wildlife to stick around.
posted by Jacqueline at 6:46 PM on June 23, 2016