You Won’t Believe The Lengths This Officer Went to Save a Baby Deer

When you take an oath to become a police officer, you know that your job and responsibility is to protect and serve the community. Putting yourself in possible dicey and dangerous situations are par for the course when you are a cop. You are highly trained to deal with these situations and go through a ton of different scenarios to prepare you for the job.

While these dangerous situations are often robberies, thefts, and other violent crimes, sometimes they are unlike anything the officer was expecting to face that day. And that is exactly what happened to an Ohio police officer.

It was a regular day for officer Dave Shinaver in his home of Sylvania Township, Ohio when he was stopped on the side of the road by a teenager named Jaden Bashaw. As explained by Bashaw, he was walking home when he had noticed that a fawn (a baby deer) had fallen into a sewer drain and called the police station for assistance. And while this is far outside his normal call, officer Shinaver didn’t hesitate and went right to work to help.

The animal was very small and obviously very frightened and had no idea where to go or what to do? Shinaver first had to remove the metal grates so he could fit. Problem is, even with the grates removed, he still couldn’t fit in the drain.

Thankfully, there was enough space so that he could reach down and pick the fawn up and save its life. Now, you may have heard that it is not recommended for humans to touch or pick up wild animals, and this is true.

Not only is it potentially dangerous as you are never sure if the animal is hostile or has any diseases, but a human’s touch can also cause the animals mother to reject them. However, if officer Shinaver didn’t spring into action to help this baby deer, there is a good chance that it would never have escaped and likely would have died in that drain.

Thankfully, the animal didn’t attack him and he was able to successfully remove the animal from the drain and likely save its life. While it allowed him to save it, it was very clear that the animal was very eager to get out of the officer’s hands and back to his mother and the wild. After a few photos, the fawn was released back into the wild and returned to its mother, without harm.

But perhaps the best part of this whole story is that one of the dash cams installed in a Sylvania Township police cruiser caught the whole thing on camera, so you can relive this adorable rescue (by going to @SylvaniaTwpPD on Twitter).

When he woke up that morning, there is little to no chance that officer Dave Shinaver thought that rescuing a baby deer from a sewer drain would be on his to-do list for the day. But it was, and he handled it like a true professional and saved the life of one of the cutest animals out there.