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Four Batavia men team up to rescue fawn from storm drain

By Howard B. Owens

A fawn was rescued and reunited with its mother Saturday night after four local men heard the fawn's plaintive cries in a storm drain and decided to grab their rubber boots and flashlights and try to help it out of the storm drain.

Tyler Hale first became aware of the fawn's plight earlier in the day when he saw a doe hovering near a storm drain grate on Holmes Avenue. After a while, the doe went into the woods and Hale walked over to the grate and he could see the fawn. Hale spent a couple of hours trying to get the fawn out of the storm drain but the little guy just went further into the storm drain.

That night, his friends -- Joe Canzeroni, Kyle Maniace, and Chris Grammatico -- went over to Hale's house for a bonfire. When one of them went behind a shed to get more firewood, he could hear the fawn's cries.

The cries "sounded almost like a baby," Maniace said.

That's when the four men decided they should try again to rescue the fawn.

The four of them each went to different drains and storm drain openings to try and figure out where the animal was.  

Maniace went down into the storm drain and found the fawn about 150 to 200 yards down a pipe. 

"After I got a little further around the bend I could see its eyes flashing at me, pretty much like a deer in the headlights -- just standing there and not knowing what to do," Maniace said.

He grabbed the fawn.

"We heard Kyle say a few streets over -- 'I got him!' " said Canzeroni, who shot the video of Maniace bringing the fawn out of the storm drain.

Kyle used his shirt to wrap the fawn in and keep him warm.

The group then brought the fawn to the fire, warmed up him and dried him off. When the fawn regained its strength to walk on its own, they put him back where the mother had last been seen. About two hours later, mother returned and retrieved her baby.

The Batavian's news partner 13WHAM contributed to this story.

alvin tufts

They admit to breaking the law. City code prohibits open fires.

"
§ 125-3
Bonfires.

A.

An operational permit for a bonfire shall be obtained from the Fire Chief and Code Enforcement Official or his or her designee prior to igniting such bonfire. Application for such approval shall only be presented by and a permit issued to the owner of the land upon which the bonfire is to be kindled."

"
§ 125-4
Open burning.

Open burning shall be prohibited."

May 30, 2018, 8:14pm Permalink
Linda LaPorte

Give me a break…you had to find something negative about this story… I try to respond when I find something good in a story…(other than crime and politics), Every single day I find city laws uninbided… (but I don’t say anything) dogs unleased running though the park, people smoking in park, not picking up after their dogs business, parking on the side of the street where is NO parking….don’t get me started on drivers in this city.

May 30, 2018, 9:07pm Permalink
Ed Hartgrove

I can't answer either of your questions, Alvin.
I'm still trying to find the meaning of uninbided.

All I found when typing uninbided into Google search was, the power of Google.
Google responded:
Showing results for uninvited.
Search instead for uninbided.
So...I clicked on the "Search instead" option.
Imagine my surprise when it listed thebatavian's post as the "go to" for uninbided.

May 31, 2018, 4:04pm Permalink
Linda LaPorte

So what started out to be a positive post on a good deed turns in to the same individuals finding negativity…so Ed, I misspelled a word…look it up in your Funk & Wagnall ….you can continue to post your negativity, according to you that is all you post…why cant you just leave people alone to post good comments. ,

May 31, 2018, 4:35pm Permalink
Ed Hartgrove

Linda. "... according to you that is all you post...". Huh? While I've made a lot of mistakes, I'm quite confident that I've never said that I only post negative comments. If you can show me otherwise, I'll gladly apologize, publicly.
I don't have the proclivity, nor (probably) the time, to count the number of comments I've responded to. As thebatavian is nearing 100,000 comments, it'd be a monumental task.

As for looking up uninbided in the Funk & Wagnalls dictionary, that'd be like looking up grariyetyness - it doesn't exist.

PS. Adam Willis Wagnalls would probably be the first to point out that his name was misspelled. Darn! There I go again.

May 31, 2018, 6:04pm Permalink
Julie Morales

I love this happy ending story.

Alvin, why don’t you go make a citizen’s arrest? Round up all four Fawn-Saving Heroes and be sure to post the video.

May 31, 2018, 7:55pm Permalink
Jan Macdonald

No mentioned of anyone's name....Alvin, but if the shoe fits, and where does the article state that this bonfire was open, and not in a pit or chimmey chumunga.

May 31, 2018, 8:52pm Permalink
Jan Macdonald

I'm so proud of these 4 young men, during a amber alert, who happened to hear what they thought was a baby cry, who risk there own safety only to find (thankfully) it was only a fawn, and bring it back to it's mother unharmed. There should be more people like them, that's the main purpose of a story like this, FYI

Jun 1, 2018, 8:45am Permalink

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