It takes a special person to see an injured animal lying in the road at night and pull over to go help it. Laura Smith is one of them. Thankfully, her recent run-in with an injured animal had about as happy an ending as one could ask for.
Sullivan County is a beautiful area in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York that's perhaps most notable as the home of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. It's also well-known for its huge deer population.
With that comes the issue of vehicle collisions involving these beautiful creatures. It's an unfortunate inevitability that some deer — around 60,000-70,000 in New York annually — will find their way into the pathways of unsuspecting motorists. This results in not only considerable deer death but also human casualties and plenty of costly vehicle damage.
Smith happened to drive past the scene of one of these incidents on a Monticello back road in late February. She saw a doe lying in the middle of the road, clearly in shock after having been hit by a car, but still alert.
Smith pulled over to try and help the injured creature any way she could. Miraculously, the doe only seemed to have a few scratches. With help from Smith, she got up and began walking.
Later that night, Smith posted her story to a Sullivan County Facebook group.
"If you hit this deer tonight on the back road to Monticello, I just wanted to ease your mind and let you know that the deer lived," the post read.
Smith offered further details in another post: "She was lying down in the middle of the road in shock and traumatized from being hit by a car but thankfully did not show signs of internal injuries once I got her up and out of the road she came around and was done with me and went on her way. I love her so much."
This small act of kindness and empathy says a ton about Smith's character. She prioritized the safety of another living thing in need. In a world that seems to be bursting with bad news of all kinds, it's comforting to know that there are still people like her out there.
In fact, there are many people like her. Conservationists and wildlife rescues essentially do what Smith did for that injured deer on a grand scale. Studies show that these efforts can be remarkably effective, too.
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Yes 👍 Another heartwarming example of humanity caring for injured wildlife is the story of the three-legged fox that was rescued and released on Long Island, New York. Months later, the same fox was seen thriving near the area where it was set free.
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