
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993                   TAG: 9307160277
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOWN OF MENASHA, WIS.                                LENGTH: Medium

TRUCK DRIVER PAID DEER-LY FOR ATTEMPTED FAWN RESCUE

A Virginia truck driver who found a 1-week-old fawn on the side of the highway and put it in the sleeper cab of his semitrailer truck has been ticketed by the state.

Claude Baucum said he thought he was being a good Samaritan by helping the deer standing beside Interstate 94 just north of Chicago about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.

"I couldn't very well let the poor thing sit on the highway with trucks zooming by," Baucum said.

Baucum, of Harrisonburg, Va., stopped to investigate and found another fawn lying dead nearby.

"I just figured the mother deer was dead," said Baucum, a driver for Carretta Trucking Inc. of Paramus, N.J.

Baucum said he fixed an old blanket for the fawn to lie on the passenger seat and the deer fell asleep. He continued on his trip after christening the deer "Harley."

"I'm a motorcycle nut, so I was thinking of Harley-Davidson motorcycles at the time. I also once met a girl at a truck stop named Harley," he said.

Baucum said he made several deliveries on his northward trip into Wisconsin before the fawn began making a "mew, mew" noise. He bought a milk replacement product and used his son's baby bottle to feed the fawn.

He was making a delivery to a town of Menasha warehouse at 3:30 p.m. when he said he asked employees how to get a permit to transport the fawn back to Virginia.

The employees called the state Department of Natural Resources and warden Mike Sealander ticketed Baucum $150 for possession of a game animal.

Warden John Krull said fawns can rarely be returned to the wild after being handled by humans. He said Harley would be taken to a rehabilitation center to be monitored for disease before being released to a game farm.

by CNB