A deer with a broken back was left for hours at a roadside due to road closures which prevented Wildlife Aid Foundation volunteers to reach the stricken animal.

The Foundation, based in Leatherhead, was forced to close for the first time in 30 years on Sunday, August 14, when roads across the county were closed for eight hours to allow 140 top cyclists to take part in the London-Surrey Olympic test race.

Simon Cowell, founder of Wildlife Aid said: “We class ourselves as a quasi emergency service and I just found it very frustrating.

“There was a deer hit in Esher that had a broken back.

“Luckily the woman who found it was great and she stayed with it for four hours.

“It was lying in a ditch screaming because it was in a lot of pain.

“The deer was put down but it should have been put down straight away.

“The pain it was in must have been horrendous.”

An owl, which had got caught in fencing, was also left for hours as volunteers struggled to reach it, and was eventually put down.

Mr Cowell added: “This is the very first time in 30 years that we have had to close and that was unpleasant for us because we have always said we will never close our doors.

“I don’t run these events and they must be a logistical nightmare but if they had had a rolling road block that would have been much better.

“If it’s like this now what’s it going to be like next year?”

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