Few people on the Quimper Peninsula know what to do when they come across an injured deer.

That was evident from the 89 replies to a Dec. 26 post by Teri Evernden of Port Townsend on social media. The post, accompanied by a photo of a large, standing deer with a deep gash on one leg, asked readers, “Is there someone I should report this to?”

A few replies could be deemed correct, but most were wide of the mark. More than a few people suggested that the animal be euthanized.

The correct answer was to call 911, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, or the Center Valley Animal Rescue, because one of them might have someone in the area who could give the deer a look.

However, even if a wildlife rehabilitator had been nearby, he or she might have decided against checking on the deer.

The reason: “Capture myopathy.” In a nutshell, capture myopathy is a condition that kills many wild animals following the anxiety they experience while being chased, captured or transported. It is a leading cause of death in wild animals that are handled by humans.

“Since first recorded in 1964 in Kenya, many cases of capture myopathy have been described, but the exact causes, pathophysiological mechanisms and treatment for this condition remain to be adequately studied and fully elucidated,” wrote the authors of the only article on capture myopathy in the July 5, 2019, issue of Conservation Physiology.

You can read the 47-page article, or you can cut to the chase by reading what Bridget Mire wrote to me in a Dec. 30 email: “Adult deer can easily succumb to stress.” That’s what the article said in 16,234 words, while also explaining how stress kills wild animals (via kidney failure, heart failure and circulatory collapse).

Mire, a spokeswoman for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, wrote that biologists she works with were familiar with the deer in Evernden’s photo.

“If a deer is still mobile, as was the case with the report we received, it has the best chance of survival if left alone,” she wrote. That’s why the WDFW did not send anyone to the injured deer.

The idea that the animal could have been tranquilized, loaded onto a truck, driven to a veterinarian, treated for its wounds and returned to the wild is unrealistic. Unfortunately, the stress the deer would have experienced from the effort likely would have killed it.

So says Sara Penhallegon, and she would know. Penhallegon founded the highly respected Center Valley Animal Rescue in Quilcene, and she is a licensed veterinary technician with thousands of successful rescues under her belt.

She has not taken in an adult deer “in many years,” Penhallegon wrote in a Dec. 27 email exchange with me, because every adult deer she had fully taken into care died. That’s a 100% mortality rate.

Fawns, however, are another story. For unknown reasons, the younger the fawns that arrive for care, the better their odds of not dying from capture myopathy. Penhallegon puts the survival percentage of fawns with bright spots at about 50% and older fawns (those with faded spots) at 10%-20%.

She wrote that many deer had arrived at CVAR seemingly fine except for their injury but had been chased down prior to capture. Those deer “do OK for a few days and are then just found dead or they waste away,” she said. Such is the nature of capture myopathy — it can kill in minutes or, with little or no warning, days later.

Upon further reflection, Penhallegen added that “there are rare occasions that we can save an adult deer.” Those rare occasions only occur when the deer has been sedated and treated with intravenous fluids and medications that help counter capture myopathy.

I sent Evernden’s photo of the injured deer to Penhallegon and asked if it required saving. Unlikely, she replied after studying the pic.

“I know it (the wound) looks bad, but this deer is in good shape and looks bright,” she wrote. “In Port Townsend, we find deer with horrible injuries that heal fine.” She attributed their recovery in large part due to the lack of animals that prey on deer in the city.

Also, unless a deer is on the ground and unable to get up, “law enforcement is not allowed to shoot it due to human danger with shooting in the city,” she wrote.

It’s time that I remind you of the best line in the Steven Seagal movie “Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.” It goes like this: “Assumption is the mother of all f***ups.”

Experts agree that most wild animals do not need to be rescued and there is almost never a time when you should remove a baby wild animal from its natural environment. This is true even if an animal appears to be abandoned; don’t assume that it is. More often than not, the parent is nearby and leaving a young animal alone usually affords it the best chance for survival.

Every year, hundreds of young wild animals such as fawns, baby seals and baby birds are needlessly “rescued” and referred to wildlife rehabilitators, Mire wrote. This can be harmful or fatal to the young animal, and disruptive to wildlife rehabilitators who need to concentrate limited resources on truly orphaned or injured wildlife.

Scott Doggett is a former staff writer for the Outdoors section of the Los Angeles Times. He and his wife, Susan Englen, live in Port Townsend.