Do not mess with a baby deer

David Llopis

That’s some quality not doing anything to help someone’s dog.

Anonymous

That’s some quality not getting pwnd by a deer yourself.

I imagine a dog is more readily equipped to deal with a deer than an unarmed human, what with the pointy teeth and the claws and the whatnot.

Anonymous

Surprising that is!
By the way: Is that clicking sound the sound of the zoom-in button of an sony ericsson vivaz? :D

blueelm

I feel really bad for the poor dog. But the people saying that the guy should have run after the deer are being silly.

It takes a lot to wrestle a deer. Most people, even guys, will just end up getting hurt just as badly as that dog did. That deer would have fought to the death. It’s pretty unlikely they would have scared her off easily.

That cat was stupid though! It’s lucky the deer was less threatened by it.

seyo

wasted opportunity for some delicious venison.

Anonymous

my husband and I rescued a baby fawn stuck in a wire fence yesterday morning and when I first found it the mother was there. She left while we worked to free it but I am sure she was close by watching, almost as if she knew we were trying to help it. It was crying and sounded just like a baby, which was how we discovered it.

Gary61

Deer momma sez:
“Krazy katz is kool – but dumb dogs getz da sh*t kicked outa dem.”

DoktorFaustus

It’s happened on more than one occasion on the Southern Illinois University campus that people have been attacked by deer for this very reason.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196758,00.html

Anonymous

Wild animals have see domesticated animals as sick, anyways. The momma deer was probably already scared to hell being in a neighborhood and not in the woods. Honestly I take the deers side.

dfornika

Why can’t all random YouTube videos be so well produced? Nice resolution, steady camera work, thoughtful editing.

narrowstreetsLA

Hear hear!

Anyway, isn’t it weird that the domesticated animals seem to have an underdeveloped instinct to flee?

wrybread

Christ, all the comments from people complaining about the dog not being on a leash are so painful for me to read, especially the ones from people who claim to be dog owners. Do you seriously keep your dog on a leash 100% of the time when its outside? Your poor, poor dog, if that’s really the case.

Hopefully you’re just being internet smug, or lying about having a dog in the first place. Or maybe you just live in some super dense city and have lost touch with what its like to have a dog outside the city.

sgnp

To be fair, Sherlock wasn’t my dog. He was my dad’s. We had him from when I was nine to about when I was in college.

http://twitpic.com/21slcz

He was off-leash a few times when he was a puppy, and I do remember once he ran into the side of a car. I think that’s when my dad instituted the “leash at all times policy.”

I also remember him falling into a freshly-dug grave in the cemetery behind our house while with my dad, so he *must* have been let off sometime.

Still, he was tightly controlled for most of the days of the year, and I know I was never allowed to let him off his cable without a leash.

I don’t have a dog now. We don’t have a good enough fence for one to run around and our city has a leash law.

That said, our neighbor’s dog is as sweet as pie and we’re happy to see her when she comes over. We don’t call the cops, and if that’s a risk her owners are willing to take, so be it.

Still, granting their dog that freedom does not absolve them from responsibility if a tragic accident happens to her.

kettledog

That cat had some stones to whip that paw on the deer’s nose, especially if it seen what happened to the dog.

KremlinLaptop

I live in a place with quite a bit of deer and lots of moose. Bears too. On my order of things that scare the ever living shit out of me the four hundred or so kilos worth of animal with two sharpened coat racks strapped to its head is right around the number one spot.

I wouldn’t fuck with a deer either.

And frankly the only conceivable thing a single human being could do would be to get out some sort of ranged weapon to deal with the deer and can you imagine the comments if the videographer had popped his camera down and gotten a rifle out and killed Bambi’s mom?

teflon

No way would I have let that thing attack my dog like that! What an a$$hole! Did no one think to running screaming at the deer? That poor dog! Brutal!

Anonymous

I completely agree. One person may have been in danger if they ran at it, but there were at least two or three people speaking on this video. If they had just put the camera down and all ran at it at once, instead of screaming like idiots, they could have saved that poor dog from a lot of pain.
Anonymous

I understand what you mean about protecting the dog, and the owner WAS screaming, but going after the mother deer may have had the same effect on the owner.
JohnnyOC

Yeah, lets see. Wild Deer vs. Human. Unless the person had a bat or a car I’ll just let nature take it’s course.
Anonymous

That ‘poor dog’ should have been on a lead or in a back garden. It’s not the dog’s fault or even the deer’s, it’s the dog owner’s fault.

Anonymous

The deer was just defending her baby. She, nor we, have any way of being sure s/he would not attack the fawn. Domesticated dogs do attack wild life, well fed, though they are.

Deer aren’t “overpopulating” suburban areas because we’ve killed off their natural predators. American humankind has decimated the forest, and with their natural habitat destroyed deer are forced to live in the suburbs. We are destroying these animals. Culling isn’t the answer, the ethical answer is to stop destroying their forest home.

mgfarrelly

That’s really curious. The deer doesn’t seem to mind the cat, at first, more wary than anything. But she knows that dog is a possible threat right off. A deer that’s run into a hunting dog or two in its day?

Anonymous

I don’t think its so much that the deer has ran into a hunting dog or two in its day as much as that dog comes from the same genepool that long ago would have made him a wolf. I think its pretty well ingrained in deer instinct to either run like a mother fucker or do exactly what it did in a situation involving one little wolf and its fawn.

Anonymous

Good thing that cat had the sense to run, too – s/he’d have gotten knocked dead with one of the deer’s kicks. This IS a good video for kids to watch. Red in tooth and claw. Kids should have no illusions when it comes to that.

MadRat

It’s easy to be smug and think, “Stupid deer, can’t tell the difference between a wolf and a docile, household pet.” But can anyone who read this article say they’ve never seen a picture of an inanimate object shaped like human sexual part and had some sort of emotional reaction to it?

sgnp

Of course, all of this has little to do with a dog getting attacked by a deer, other than (as people stated earlier) if the dog were at hand the owner may have been able to get it to safety.

wrybread

Or (as has been stated earlier) the owner may have gotten trampled too.
- sgnp
  
  True, assuming that the owner would have kept the dog as close to the deer as the dog was at 1:10, rather than having the dog at the owner’s position which sounds to be at a much safer distance.
  
  I don’t know how close you’ve ever been to a deer, but the few times I’ve was on the same side of a road as one (or more) the instinct to cross it to get away from them is pretty powerful.
  - jlp716
    
    All’s I know is, we should sue the deer.

boandmichele

i am still failing to see a good reason why some of you think the dog should be restrained on a leash. this is clearly a rather rural area if deer are regularly in the street, therefore the dogs should be able to enjoy a bit of freedom as well. things like this happen, leash or not. (and this is coming from someone who has a cat)

Anonymous

Deer = born free, in it’s natural habitat (well, before people built on it).

Dog = Bred as pet, under the responsibility of an owner.

Very very different things.

It’s why I hate people keeping cats as pets (I don’t hate cats themselves); you buy an animal, then let it out of your house for 70% of the day to go and destroy local ecosystems and shit on other peoples gardens, eat their pet fish etc. Not such a problem in rural areas; but in urban areas it just fucks up bird populations.

A pet, by definition, has an owner who is responsible for it.

You can’t tame the wild, and nor should you; it’s just as deserving of its space as you are. You want the dog to be free then go let it loose in a wood somewhere and say goodbye.
Anonymous

The deer belong there. Domesticated cats and dogs do not. Free roaming pets do so much damage to native wildlife it’s not even funny. I hope you keep your cats inside.
Anonymous

If it’s really a rural area, then a loose dog could be doing predation of livestock — and people in rural areas are big on SSS. Wherever you are,control your dog or be prepared for the consequences.
Anonymous

Because dogs are domesticated, or are meant to be under control, not running alone where they can become a threat to small children, people they don’t like or -hey- the cat.
- JohnnyOC
  
  Ahh..I was wondering when “..but think of the children” would go into effect. :)

johnlancia

Honest to god, people who spend all of their time in the city and away from nature never cease to amaze me. Any wild animal protecting its young is very dangerous. The larger that animal is, the more so. It doesn’t matter how cute or cuddly you think it looks. Google panda bear attacks if you want to see what happens when they get pissed off. Deer and powerful and vigourous wild animals, one good hoof to the head can kill a wolf or human.
As for the cat and the dog, they are domesticated and probably never spend anymore time outside than their masters do. They might have looked innocent and just curious, but what they were really doing was hunting the fawn. The mother knew this even if most people watching the video don’t. The cat especially. You can see its lowered stance and the way it never takes its eyes off the fawn while following it. The mother knows what a predator is, even if the cat and dog owners don’t. It was only doing what came naturally to it and what was best for its fawn. If the little thing had been bitten by either of the pets, then there is a good chance it would get infected from the wounds and die.

Xopher

If the little thing had been bitten by either of the pets, then there is a good chance it would get infected from the wounds and die.

Most wild animals do die before adulthood. That’s nature’s way. Pets, though domesticated, can be part of that.

Yeah, the momma deer did what she had to. But let’s not pretend it’s somehow a horrible tragedy if poor little Bambi dies.
- technogeek
  
  “Most wild animals do die before adulthood. That’s nature’s way. Pets, though domesticated, can be part of that.”
  
  There were some studies, not long ago, which indicated that in terms of the total mass of prey taken, domestic cats are major predators in many areas. Which is yet another reason to seriously consider keeping them indoors. (On top of the risks to the cat, of course.)
  
  As far as whether the cat and dog were hunting the fawn… Predator playing looks a lot like hunting, especially if you’re a prey animal. (And the line is sometimes pretty fine and may be crossed — as in, why dogs may get overexcited by something running away from them, and why cats may play with a mouse “until the battery runs down”.) I can’t tell from the video whether the dog did anything to provoke the reaction, and if so how serious he was or wasn’t… But the cat is pretty clearly in “what are you and do ya wanna play” mode; as noted, it had prior experience with deer and possibly they with cats.
  
  I do find myself wondering whether a smaller (ideally non-noisy) dog would have been considered nonthreatening, or if it would have been pounded into pulp. Hard to ask a deer what constitutes threat.
  - turingcub
    
    I think you’re misreading the cat’s body language.
    
    The cat isn’t playing at *all* – there’s no tail movement (which you’d see after the cat emerges from under the car). The cat is thinking, Well here’s a huge piece of meat; can I get it by grasping it here? How about over from this part?
    
    The cat continues to follow the slow-moving meat. I’m curious whether the cat took much notice of the dog’s beating, or whether it was busy sniffing Bambi the whole time, because he tries the swipe of aggression before learning what Mama’s capable of.
    - Anonymous
      
      This is true. That is cat stalking behavior which is also cat playing behavior. They keep their prey unsure that way if they can. In this case I think the doe was more calm because the housecat is small and doesn’t look like too much threat. That being said the cat was closer to being a real threat to the fawn and if it were bigger might have already had a kill by the time the deer came running.
  - Niklas
    
    Then we have to buy more stock in rat and mouse traps and poison when they pass the law that cats have to be indoors 24/7.
    - jasonq
      
      Uh…yeah. You do know that there are lots of wild animals that eat rodents, right?
      
      Problem is, cats tend to kill a lot of other critters too – particularly birds, which are killed in the many, many millions every year by roaming housecats and feral cats.
      
      I like cats. But the little bastards should be kept indoors or under close supervision.
    - Niklas
      
      Don’t read any intent into my post when I did not put any there. Thank you.
  - dculberson
    
    The only time that cats being major predators becomes a problem is when there’s a particular prey you want to protect.
- johnlancia
  
  Who’s pretending what? Of course most of them die before adulthood. The mother was following her instinct to try to prevent that. My point was that she was doing what came naturally to her. You’re going on about the point I was trying to make.

caseyd

Here in glorious Silicon Valley we find carnivorously dismantled deer around the house once or twice a year.

I used to hang the bones on our fences, but the deer didn’t take the clue.

With little kids about I worry more about the dismantlers then the antlers. But the kids are trained to let the deer be.

aplusbi

This requires a friendly deer chaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciAlFBYvpq8

pidg

Reminds me of Ostrich vs Girl on Pony:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlO0x2gAnvM

:D

lectio

Well, that’s nature for you.

wiredfool

It’s a good thing no one went to help the dog, cause then there would have been two problems.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/byissue/default.asp?doctypeid=12&selDate=156

tbone

Can the dog’s owner please confirm that the dog is okay? As an animal lover and a border collie owner myself, I found this video shocking and distressing. In fact, I would have appreciated a little more warning as to the graphically violent content. As to those of you who felt the dog deserved it because the owner made the choice to allow it off leash: you are cruel cruel freaks.

blueelm

FWIW I think most people are saying they’re angry with the owner for not protecting the dog by keeping it on a leash, and not that the dog deserved to get hurt.
kcev

Woah there! I don’t think anyone said the dog *deserved* it. The fact is that the doe behaved in a completely natural way, and IF that dog had been confined to a fenced yard or indoors, as typically required by law for very good reasons, the incident would not have happened.

Usually, deer choose to avoid, rather than confront, dogs (which is why having dogs gives your garden a fighting chance). However, most animals that raise their young will attack to protect the young. It’s a basic survival instinct.

Anyway, no need to worry about the dog. The comment with the video says the dog is fine.
Markle

@#76 I don’t think anybody is blaming any of the animals. The dog’s owner should not have had it out where it could get into the street. The deer attack was just another level of bizarre. According to the vidoegrapher on other site it’s a half-blind, timid, elderly dog. The dog is a danger to itself without its owner as a chaperone.

Anonymous

LOL, they disabled comments in YouTube. Good thing, because the shrieking woman in that video was getting absolutely blasted.

Jelf

Deer are assholes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL9xCWphV8s

piminnowcheez

It’s not often that “foolhardy” seems like the right word to describe a cat, but in this case, man is it perfect. Either that cat has a truly outsized self-regard or the fawn must have smelled like bacon, shrimp, and catnip all at the same time and just made the cat lose its mind.

Doesn’t seem right that the dog is the one to get its ass kicked.

technogeek

People seem to forget that a wild animal is… well, wild. A ranger at Yosemite told us that they seem *finally* have to convinced most people that the bears aren’t cuddly; they’re still working on convincing the visitors that buffalo and moose aren’t either.

Yeah, from the deer’s point of view — and from biology’s point of view generally — dog equals wolf, and more importantly is in the general category of big predator. The cat is small enough to *probably* not constitute a serious threat and wasn’t behaving like one, and so gets by with just a warn-off (and might not even have gotten that if the doe wasn’t quite so spooked).

As far as doing something to get the deer away from the dog… I don’t know enough about deer to know whether playing the “me big ape” routine would have sufficed to scare it back, or just made it switch targets. The dog has the disadvantage of being low enough to be stomped upon; a human isn’t vulnerable to that particular attack, at least while upright. I believe deer can do a pretty good mule-kick, though, so it might still be a gamble…?

We moved into deer country. We knocked out their predators — wolves specifically. Not surprising that their population has gotten to the point where they’re coming back into suburbia looking for food, and that they’re interacting with people and pets as a result. More aggressive culling might help, but… well, it’s the cute factor again; people have trouble with the idea of shooting bambi.

(I don’t have any objection to hunting for the pot, or culling; I do object to hunting for sport. Main reason I haven’t done any bow-hunting is that, using a traditional bow, my aim isn’t good enough yet and I wouldn’t want to risk just injuring the animal.)

Anonymous

Dog doesn’t have to equal “wolf”. For eastern deer, it equals “coyote” which is a highly efficient predator of fawns (http://www.jstor.org/pss/3783887) and which we haven’t totally eliminated.
- technogeek
  
  Point granted. We killed off the wolves, and the coyotes enlarged their range to take advantage of the opportunity. Personally, I’d rather have the wolves.
- Xopher
  
  “coyote” which is a highly efficient predator of fawns … and which we haven’t totally eliminated.
  
  I hope you never do! Especially if they’re highly efficient predators of fawns.
  
  Too many godsdamned deer, and not enough coyotes, IMO.
alllie

I really think people have an advantage over a deer. I think I could pick up a stick or a broom or a rake and charged the deer, especially since that dog was so without survival instinct. That is what makes humans the equal of most animals, it’s our ability to pick up things and use them as weapons.

It annoys me when people complain about deer in their yards. I grew up in a world without leash laws and no deer would have dared to come into town because the dogs would have packed up and taken it down.

Still, the mother deer proved her right to survive and reproduce. So did the baby with that drop and freeze.
- technogeek
  
  Allie — Remember that humans, before projectile weapons, were mostly pack hunters. As shown here, the pack makes a huge difference in effectiveness. I wouldn’t bet on just-one-human-with-a-broom unless I had to.
  
  Of course if it was my dog, or a human, getting stomped I’d probably figure I had to. Someone else’s dog… I’m honestly not sure how quickly I’d jump. It’s a lot easier to say what we think we ought to do in a given situation when we aren’t in the middle of a crisis.
  
  Finding things to throw at the deer might be a better bet, come to think of it.

Mattz

Well it just goes to show, pretty much any large animal will defend its kids with a crazed fervour.

I’m guessing the dog is fairly old as it was a little plodding and didn’t seem to hear its name being called. Poor old soul. If it were mine, I would’ve heeled it in at the first sign of a large, possibly angry mother-deer being anywhere near it.

Maybe it’s just me but in the Highlands where I grew up, you’d occasionally see the aftermath of 2 stags having a dominance battle. It was something akin to seeing a split open bin bag from a butchers shop. As a result, I only ever want to be near deer in two ways: via a rifle scope or opening my freezer.

VibroCount

Disney’a Bambi has many humans believing that deer are peaceful tame creatures. They are wild. Wild animals will protect their offspring with mad violence. The cat, for some reason, is not viewed by mama deer as a threat, but perhaps the dog=wolf thoughts drive mama to pounding on the dog long before it gets close enough to the fawn to cause any problems. An instructive video. Deer are not Bambis.

Anonymous

It’s not the fact that the cat is not a threat and the dog is because it looks like a wolf. My dogs will chase lizards but that’s not because they see them as a threat. It’s just their instincts. Also, at the end, the deer then gets after the cat chasing it down the street. It has nothing to do with the fact that it is or is not a threat. The whole situation should not have happened to begin with because like what was said earlier, they are on a street with houses. That’s the environment for dogs and cats and other pets, not wild animals. And that being the case, how can people say that the dog should have been on a leash? That is the stupidest thing that I have ever heard. That’s pretty much like saying if you go hunting with your dog and cat, then the deer should be put on a leash. It’s their environment. It’s all just instinct.

searconflex

I found it interesting that comments were disabled on the youtube page. A link was provided that explains why, and also gives a lot of context and clarification to this event. It is a must read .

http://www.thoughts.com/index.php?_action=blog_view&id=593597&type=1

kcev

@boandmichele: Dogs should be leashed or fenced because:

1. As the deer seemed to know, dogs are prey animals and have a prey drive. Even domestic dogs. Even ones who have never attacked anything.
2. It could get hit by a car, leaving you with a dead/injured dog and someone else with, at best, a horrible, horrible day and at worse, a wrecked car and personal injury.
3. Unrestrained animals anger your neighbors by tearing up their trash and crapping in their yard. Yes, even if they never say anything about it.
4. It’s generally the law.

FYI: That appears to have been filmed in a residential area, not a rural area. Deer are everywhere because we keep carving our neighborhoods out of their natural habitats.

Anonymous

I have had multiple dogs and cats – and for most of my life lived in an area – Eugene Oregon – that is rife with dear. The pets and dear seemed to at best, get along, even be friendly, at worst, eye each other suspiciously – but there were never any attacks like this.

Perhaps there is a regional difference in temperament – dear there are more pissy. Or ‘Mufasa” could have agitated the dear so much that when the doe saw the dog she when ballistic when she might not have ordinarily attacked.

Seriously – my dog used to graze the fallen apples in our back yard in the midst of does and fawns also eating the apples. Our cat used to sleep on top of dear resting in our yard.

Individual mileage varies. Perhaps that doe was simply a er…bitch.

Anonymous

Why doggie no run?

xzzy

Not pictured was the conversation when the cat got back to all his cat buddies.

“I told you guys I’d do it! Did you fucking see that?! Now pay up.”

He now shows off the scars to chick cats to try and impress them how badass he is.

Patrick Austin

Blind, arthritic dogs are probably even more likely to nail a passing jogger than healthy ones.

People who don’t leash their dogs in the city are assholes, period. If it’s so important for dogs to be able to run around off-leash you should A) find a fenced dog park, B) fence your yard or C) move out of the city. Honestly, I don’t care that your dog is at risk. I’m just worried about me.

I grew up around dogs and know how they behave. They’re animals and their fear/threat detectors are completely unpredictable. I know they’re *almost* always fine, but when I’m out for a run or a bike ride on city streets, I have NO IDEA whether or not your dog is mean. Frankly, neither do most owners. Dogs get weird when adult men run towards their owners. At least a quarter of the dogs I pass on my morning run bark and chase after me. I’ve bitten hard enough to draw blood twice IN THE LAST YEAR by dogs that “have never done anything like that before!” One of those owners even had the gall to yell at me for running near her.

Dogs are fine. Dog owners? A lot of them REALLY suck.

sgnp

I think that’s a big part of it. The off-leash dog owners I talked to seemed confident that they knew exactly how their dog would behave in most situations.

I’ve also had cases where, if a dog engages in aggressive behavior, I’m schooled in how I should have handled myself better in order to keep it from happening. The tips are nice, believe me, but I’d love for them to be sugar-coated in some concern.

Paul F. Tompkins put it better than me:

http://comedians.jokes.com/paul-f–tompkins/videos/paul-f–tompkins—apologies-necessary

Anonymous

This is a “teachable moment”! Someone call Obama and tell him to invite them all to the White House for a beer summit. Can’t we all just get along?

searconflex

from the videographer:

“Here is the part you may want to understand if you have a little intellectual integrity: as it unfolds live in front of your eyes, you donâ€™t expect that attack to happen at all. Then it does, and it takes you a couple seconds to realize whatâ€™s taking place in your viewfinder. Then you donâ€™t expect it to last forever like it did, youâ€™re positive itâ€™ll be over in a flash because it seems so fast and crazy, somehow you know that, by the time you get inside your house and get some broomstick that might scare away that doe (unless you prefer a frying pan or the AK-47 you conveniently left on the kitchen table with live ammo so your kids can realistically learn to play dead), itâ€™ll all be over one way or another. So you stay there watching and, in my case, filming the train wreck.”

smart AND funny!

theawesomerobot

That’s one bad ass cat.

aldasin

“i am still failing to see a good reason why some of you think the dog should be restrained on a leash.”

Wow, that was the most unintentionally hilarious comment in this thread.
How about the part where the dog gets stomped by a wild animal? It’s not about what “we” have to say about it, the video makes the case on it’s own with no comment needed.
But feel free to ignore it if it conflicts with your beliefs and convictions. We could always use another youtube star to entertain us.

putty

@#82 –

Feel free to point out excatly how having the dog on a leash would have prevented it from being trampled by the deer.

While you’re at it, don’t forget to maintain your smug demeanor by pointing out how other people allow their beliefs to get in the way of common sense.
- DirkSJ
  
  “Feel free to point out excatly how having the dog on a leash would have prevented it from being trampled by the deer.”
  
  If it were on a leach at it’s master’s side (or safely behind a fence in the backyard) it would be nowhere near the deer. Nowhere near the deer means no trampling.
  
  The owners were highly irresponsible to allow the dog to be anywhere wild animals roam freely without being restrained and controlled at the side of the owner.
  - Xopher
    
    Did you WATCH the video? The doe charged the dog when it was in no way threatening the fawn. What makes you think the doe would have recognized that the leash was a restraint on the dog, or cared? What makes you think the near presence of a human would have intimidated her?
    
    I see no evidence of any of those things.
    - DirkSJ
      
      “What makes you think the doe would have recognized that the leash was a restraint on the dog, or cared? What makes you think the near presence of a human would have intimidated her?”
      The human was quite a long way away, safely so, and zooming in with the camera. As far as the doe was concerned the dog got too close. A responsible owner with the dog in control on a leash would have taken it inside when a wild animal was spotted.
      
      The dog being allowed to roam free and get itself into trouble is exactly the entire problem. According to some of the links above the dog is 15 years old and half blind. It can’t look out for itself. The owner should keep it close and safe and controlled to protect it from getting itself in trouble.
      
      You can hear the lady calling out to the dog to get back. She knew being near the doe was dangerous. The dog didn’t know and didn’t obey. Dog on a leash: no calling necessary, lead the dog inside the moment you see a wild animal. It’s the lady’s own fault that the dog got hurt.
    - Xopher
      
      You didn’t read all the material. The dog’s owner and the cameraman are two different people (one of each sex, in fact) and were not particularly near each other. The dog was at least as far from the fawn as the cameraman.
    - DirkSJ
      
      “You didn’t read all the material. The dog’s owner and the cameraman are two different people (one of each sex, in fact) and were not particularly near each other. The dog was at least as far from the fawn as the cameraman.”
      Yes I understand they are different people. Maybe I used bad sentence structure and implied they were the same…I don’t have a degree in English. Having read through the entire explanation the guy gave as to why he turned off comments/why he didn’t run in to save the dog I do know they are different people.
      
      You are however ignoring the point that many people have been making. If the lady had the dog on a leash, leash in hand, and took it inside immediately when she saw a dangerous wild animal how would it have gotten hurt again?
- aldasin
  
  You’ve been offered a tidbit of information in the form of a video, my friend. Make of it what you will, ignore it, argue with people on boingboing, it’s of no concern to me.
  I just appreciate the laugh.

Xopher

Wow, it’s amazing what a lot of assholes there are in the world. I can’t believe the hate mail that poor guy got? And “this is why people don’t like Jews” — what the FUCK is that?!?!? Who in or around this video is Jewish, and what the hell does that have to do with anything?

Deer are nasty creatures. Apparently so are humans.

Anonymous

The deer have nothing on the Cape Buffalo. Deer swat cats and beat on sleeping dogs-cape buffalo fight off wide-awake lions and crocodiles.

mdh

I think the cat was asking the deer if it could be a fawn, as fawns clearly do not get fucked with by many dogs.

Anonymous

Why the hell did the dear go for the dog? the cat’s the asshole that was really up to something? XD

ADavies

I want to say something from the heart…

You “dog should be on the leash” commenters – you represent everything that is wrong with America today.

OK, well, not everything. I’m not pinning our recent World Cup loss to Ghana on you, or the financial crisis. (Thought it is tempting.)

What I am saying, is that our whole country is too damn up tight these days. I grew up in a (suburban) world where dogs and kids both ran free. And I miss that part of America.

Thac0

I agree with you 100% ADavies. That dog was fine to be in its neighborhood doing its thing. I live in a quiet neighborhood and have many friendly dogs that roam about.

In addition, deer are overpopulated and this is why we eat them.
Anonymous

You got it backwards here. Taking initiative and responsibility for something is good for America. If only everyone could be that motivated, dedicated and hard working, instead of being lazy and neglecting action and personal responsibility.

k-boozle

I am from Cranbrook, my mom sent me this link a few weeks ago as the videographer is a former teacher of mine. I admit to having the same initial reaction as some of the commentors, ie. ‘Why didn’t Mr. ____ jump in and try to help the dog!’ but having thought it over a bit more, and knowing that the videographer (despite having given me endless hours of torment in the form of french grammar) is not a bad guy, I feel more sympathetic.

As to the debate over rural or urban? Cranbrook is not a huge town, but this is right in the centre of the city, quite far from the nearest woods. Deer regularly wander all over town and I think we’ve lost the reality of these animals as being wild. This video should be a good reminder to everybody who regularly interacts with wildlife in their day-to-day.

Xopher

As to the debate over rural or urban? Cranbrook is not a huge town, but this is right in the centre of the city, quite far from the nearest woods.

OK, again we have a regional dispute over the meaning of the word ‘city’. You don’t have deer wandering around in a city. In a real city deer get on the evening news, and they explain how the Animal Control people captured them, sedated them, and took them out of the city for release into the wild.

That’s me being a New Yorker.

On the West Coast, of course, you have whales and dolphins “in the city.” You think a mother deer is trouble…
- blueelm
  
  We have them in Dallas TX. If that’s not a city I dunno what is. Sure it might not be LA but it’s damned sure not a small town. And coyotes. In fact at the DMA once one of the city foxes (small gray fox) got in while a friend of mine was working there.
Anonymous

My hometown, too. I saw deer in the yard several times a month in the summer, and they had to jump a fence to get in. It didn’t take my Dad long to make a small greenhouse to protect his veggie plants!

See them quite often here in Penticton, too!

Anonymous

OF COURSE there’s little difference between cat’s playing an cat’s preying. When predators play, it’s largely practice for the hunt.

Brainspore

That’s some quality not getting pwnd by a deer yourself.

You’ll get Pwnd for a fawn, but you definitely don’t want to fuck with a buck.

Anonymous

what the hell! thats horrible, the dog wasnt even near the baby deer! that made me sick!

Anonymous

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pom_Poko

Anonymous

I saw slides of the end result for some guy that thought it was cool to feed a deer, by hand, then inside his house, finally inside the house with the door closed. Pictures of a smashed door, lots of blood and finally a gored dead guy. There’s a good use for black and white film, helps one stay objective when blood spills.

Anonymous

People want to keep up with this suburban sprawl, taking more and more and more land away from the animals. There are too many people.

Plus, this woman’s dog should have been on a leash or behind a fence. It’s the owner’s fault for not keeping her dog where it should have been. Not roaming the neighborhood doing as it pleases.

JohnnyOC

I also agree that the deer population should be culled in many areas of the country, esp. the Midwest since their natural predators are pretty much gone…but since they’re “soooo cute” and “don’t-hunt-Bambi” crap that’s going around the numbers are starting not just to become more of a public nuisance.

People also don’t realize that too many of their numbers are unsustainable in that many of them could starve to death from lack of food.

I’ve also had many friends growing up get into accidents, some severe, because the deer population was overflowing in some the more rural areas and they would love to scuttle across at the last minute onto highways, roads, and lanes.

beep1o

Pwnd? I think the the dog got fwnd.

Teller

fwnd.
FTW!

gwyllion

like i said in another post (i think on jezebel with a horny horse that mounted another with riders attached) – id a million times rather be around a horny male animal than between a mother and her young. Mares with foals? accidentally get between em – holy shit! gimme a stallion ANY day!

Antinous / Moderator

this is clearly a rather rural area if deer are regularly in the street

I live within 1,000 feet of the local convention center, a multiplex and about three thousand hotel rooms. There’s a coyote pack that lives practically on the doorstep, an occasional mountain lion and even a bear once. There’s a reason for leash laws. Ask dog owners who live in suburban Florida what happens to unleashed dogs.

Xopher

But had the dog been on a leash, the deer would probably have charged it anyway. Result: dog still hurt, human possibly hurt as well.

Ito Kagehisa

Don’t try to defend your dog from a deer unless you know what you are doing.

Deer knock you down and step on you. Their little bitty sharp hooves focus all their weight on a very small area. They easily break ribs (as it appears to be doing to that dog) and a big deer can punch a hoof right into your lung.

They are pretty tough, too, so it’s hard to hurt them without a weapon.

One of the funniest things I ever saw was a whitetail buck and a Canada goose fighting. Some deer got too close to a goose nest, and the gander attacked one of the does. This drew the buck, which repeatedly trampled the gander. The gander would get up and fly at the buck, the buck would run right over it like a freight train, and then they’d do it over again. And again. And again. The buck looked like he was thinking “what does it TAKE to put this thing DOWN?”. It was brutal but hilarious.

Anonymous

At least the deer kept the dog from getting run over by a car, he was headed for the street. The dog shouldn’t have been allowed to run around free, that’s what fenced yards are for.

Ratdog

My friend recently got between a mother elk (who was with a big herd) and her calf. The herd seemed to get aggressive, and at one point tried to rush him, but petered off before they got close. The calf managed to reunite with the mother soon after. Imagine being attacked by an extremely P.O’d elk mother.

Although, the same rule goes for pretty much any wild animal and its babies: potentially endangered baby + possible predator = one angry parent

Anonymous

#26 technogeek: Deer most certainly can strike human sized targets with their hooves. They rear up on their hind legs and strike down with the forelegs. And those hooves are sharp enough to do serious damage.

And about the reaction of the fawn: Mama saw the dog first, you can see her wheel around to face it, then check the fawn, then face it again, that’s when the fawn drops down.

Rider

For all those hero hiding behind keyboards, this is what happens to you when you get to close to a deer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD5zjUbWpXY

Granted that’s a bigger buck, but I”m sure the results would be similar with a slightly smaller fawn defending her child.

Anonymous

i love how when the dog gets attacked they rant and rave and sound concerned but continue film, talking about how the dog is hurt instead of checking on it, but it takes the cat being attacked for them to put the camara down.

Rider

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15ut0KUHO9E&feature=related

Same clip but this one has an interview explaining what happened.

hijukal

Christ, what an asshole.

But seriously, the dog seemed to be just minding it’s own business. Think I’ll steer clear of wild deer in the future. Besides, if I see any in Australia something odd has seriously just occurred.

alisong76

Maybe not deer in Australia, hijukal, but kangaroos fill the same ecological niche here – ever see what one of those buggers can do with their back legs if they feel threatened? They mightn’t bother to hop away, they might just turn around and lacerate or disembowel you with one of those kicks. They’ve also been known to flee into waterholes and if a predator is silly enough to follow, they’ll grab it and hold it under until it drowns.

IamInnocent

Beware of the girls in stilettos.

shawnaroo

The dog running free isn’t offensive or upsetting to me, but at the same time, it’s hard to feel sorry for the dog’s owner when the dog has to deal with the consequences of that freedom.

That sort of freedom inherently brings with it some extra risk. Unfortunately for the dog, domestication has filtered out some of its natural instincts for dealing with risks like giant pissed off deer. By all means let your dog roam around like that if you want, but you don’t really have any right to complain if it gets itself into trouble.

sgnp

This discussion made me realize that I talk a lot about folks who have their dogs off-leash in Seattle but never actually had a conversation with them.

I just dropped my daughter off at her day camp and had a chance to chat with some folks whose dog was running around off-leash in the boulevard across from the preschool.

Their basic attitude was that they felt comfortable letting their dog off-leash in the city because he’d been trained well and their commands were enough to keep him under control. To be fair, I didn’t feel at all threatened around him, and he didn’t seem interested in running into traffic.

They said that there are some dogs running around who have no business being off leashes. If a dog isn’t well behaved, it’s up to the owner to keep it controlled. I got the feeling that off-leash dog owners have supplanted the ordinance with a kind of “honor system” where if you’re confident that your dog is well-trained it’s okay to let them run free as long as you’re in the area.

When another off-leash dog ran up, it was interesting to see the two owners kind of size each other up at the same time dogs were. There seemed to be a mutual acceptance that the dogs and owners were cool, and everyone seemed to relax.

When I asked them what they would do if they saw a dog or wild animal that could be a threat, what they would do. They said they would call the dog to them, and they were confident he would return.

Childe Roland

Here where I live, in a rural subdivision, it’s not unusual for dogs to run free (they hang around their yards, mostly). I had to build a fence because mine would take off and run the woods all night, but before that I subscribed to the principle that dogs ought to be free just like we are. Sure there’s more risk but more happiness too.

And there’s lots of deer. For the dogs to chase. Which they do, automatically. In the wild, deer are dog food. My weenie/lab showed up once carrying a deer leg in her mouth, probably from a carcass somewhere.

I’m really surprised the dog in the video didn’t try and chase the deer as soon as it saw it. My first thought would’ve been to protect that fawn, not the dog, ha.

It’s hard to watch the dog get beat up, but dogs are tough. In the animal world, they’re up with us and ought to be able to take care of themselves. He or she was missing the fight-or-flight reflex, that’s for sure.

Anonymous

at least that cat had the balls to stand up against that deer. and why did that dog deserve that? it didn’t do anything

Anonymous

If this tells you anything it is that a dog is a wild animal and has to be kept under control at all times. The law require it, why doesn’t common sense.

putty

@#43

If this tells you anything it is that a dog is a wild animal and has to be kept under control at all times. The law require it, why doesn’t common sense.

By definition a dog is not a wild animal, it is in fact domesticated.

I also fail to see how having the dog on a leash would have prevented this incident from occuring, it probably would have made it much worse. The video clearly shows the dog was keeping its distance and moving away from the fawn at the time of the attack. You could make a case for keeping the dog behind a fence but I really don’t see the dog or it’s owner at fault here. He or she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
- JohnnyOC
  
  Wow. The dog should of been on a lease or behind a fence. Period. I love how people just blithely let their domesticated animals lose thinking they’ll be fine.
  
  That dog, besides having a fun time with the deer, could of been hit by an oncoming car or fought to the death with another dog or hell, dog-napped, or even bit someone and the owners sued.
  
  Think people!
  - JohnnyOC
    
    lease = leash
    
    lose – loose.
    
    It looks like from comments that the dog was losing his lease on an apartment or something. :)
    
    Sorry for hogging the bandwidth.
Brainspore

Let’s extend that to cats also. The dog may be the one who got mauled here, but the cat was the one who was really asking for it.
- Felton
  
  To be fair, the dog was off-camera most of the time. We have no idea what rude gestures he may have been making to the deer.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Getting rid of the dog is the first plank in the Cat Party platform.
  - Mark Frauenfelder
    
    Where do I sign up?
    
    Cat Lassie could be the party leader.
- MCZ
  
  The cat has had friendly interactions with deer before. Here’s another video by the same videographer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF6RJaFtAzg&feature=channel.

Antinous / Moderator

You know what is useful for repelling angry cervids, dodgy drifters and fresh zombies? An air horn. Very loud noise is an effective way to break up a fight between animals, including humans.

Xopher

I was thinking that very thing. Kids in that neighborhood should carry them, just in case a fucking DOE decides to make them a doormat!

sgnp

Basically, the dog was hanging out on the sidewalk minding its own business and then the deer perceived it as a threat and stomped it.

I don’t think anyone’s saying that if there had been a leash on the dog and nothing else was different the dog would have been safe. They’re just saying that if there had been a leash attaching the dog to a human, the human might have taken the dog away when the deer showed up.

I’ve noticed a huge difference in the attitudes of folks in the city and folks in the country about dogs being off-leash. I grew up in a farming community of around 500 people, and dogs ran around free all the time. It was also common practice for the locals to shoot unknown dogs with BB guns, sprayed them with dog repellent, and kick them if they started attacking cats or menacing kids. As we were kinder, gentler souls, our dog stayed in our yard on a lead and would stay on a leash when we’d take him for walks.

Once I moved to Seattle, I’ve run into many dog owners both in the parks and on the street, who carry a leash in their hand but let their dog run a full block ahead of them. All of these dogs, without exception, have been very friendly. I like to think it’s because they’re being treated better than their rural counterparts. Still, though, coming from that much different culture I can’t help but wonder if the city dog owners are operating under a somewhat naive impression that their dog will always:

1) Behave rationally and calmly towards everyone.
2) Not encounter a situation where a bit more hands-on control is needed.

Seattle does have leash laws, it’s just that either they aren’t strictly enforced or whatever penalty the owners face isn’t that steep.

DirkSJ

“I don’t think anyone’s saying that if there had been a leash on the dog and nothing else was different the dog would have been safe. They’re just saying that if there had been a leash attaching the dog to a human, the human might have taken the dog away when the deer showed up.”
This is precisely what I think everyone is saying. As a pet owner it’s your duty to protect your domesticated animal. Animals don’t always behave rationally. A leash allows the owner to control the animal both keeping it away from harm and keeping it from harming other people/animals.
- sgnp
  
  Exactly.
  
  I understand that for some people there’s a “freedom” issue, where they want their pets to be able to roam around and have fun. Still, advocating for the personal freedoms of a living thing you’ve claimed as a possession gets into a really weird area.
  
  Once we “own” a dog, we take responsibility for it. By letting your dog roam free, you’re relaxing some of your control, but that doesn’t reduce your obligation to ensure both it and those with whom it comes into contact are safe.
  
  Granted, there is something to be said about the element of surprise. I doubt the owner anticipated a deer attack when letting her dog out that morning.

sgnp

Just re-read my comment.

The folks “with the leash in their hand” have a coiled up leash, not attached to the dog.

I figure it’s to attach to the dog’s collar if there’s a potential problem. It just seems sometimes that the owners are too far away for that to be effective.

Art

That’s a hell of an amazing video!

Ito Kagehisa

You know what is useful for repelling angry cervids, dodgy drifters and fresh zombies? An air horn. Very loud noise is an effective way to break up a fight between animals, including humans.

Good call from Antinous! Especially if you aren’t comfortable carrying a deadly weapon; a really loud noisemaker might be just what you need.

Incidentally, if a skunk walks into the middle of a group of your friends, I can testify that banging away furiously on half an oxygen tank with a sledgehammer makes it go away without squirting anyone. Some ungrateful wretches may complain about this solution, but you won’t actually have to hear them complain for quite a while.

Anonymous

So the cat is fine too?

Jamie Sue

I guess growing up on farm prevented me from making the kind of heart warming attachments that people have for animals… I saw a mother deer protecting it offspring and a dog that was learning a valuable lesson. I wouldn’t have done a dang thing to prevent it. Such is life.

Xopher

What valuable lesson? Run faster when a deer attacks you before you even so much as come within yards of its stupid fawn that you probably don’t want anything to do with anyway?

Seriously, the dog doesn’t do anything stupid in this video except not run away. It’s the stupid CAT that deserves an ass-kicking, but it dodges…which I guess justifies its confidence, but note that the deer doesn’t really do an all-out attack on the cat.

Anonymous

jeez. This is just terrible. Pet owner obviously has no clue.

When the pet is tanking you’re suppose to have your ranged attack up.

And that cat! Get behind the target while the tank has the aggro!

ZippySpincycle

Ah, the internet: Where people know with perfect certainty what a complete stranger shoulda done differently–based on 30 seconds of video.

lilbacon3

I feel for the deer. Someone mentioned that the dog should’ve been leashed or in a back yard. True. I love dogs, but in the large scheme of things, we’re intruding on the deer’s natural home turf. When you boil it down, it’s people who are at fault for things like this.

jimbuck

I wonder how much yogurt that deer eats, how much it pays, and how much interest it would have in a yogurt maker.

Ryan

I read on the other site that it’s an old blind dog. Personally, I am a strong advocate for MOST dogs being leashed for their own safety. That being said, my dog is 15 and arthritic, and he doesn’t need a leash when he’s puttering around. Old dogs definitely get a buy on this one.

Seriously, the poor dog just got caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.

V

How is this disturbing?

The most disturbing thing about this video is the overpopulation of forest rats, er, deer, encroaching into suburban areas due to lack of predation and habitat loss. This encroachment, with the readily-availble food sources of gardens, lawns, and people who are foolhardy enough to feed them leads to a population generally unafraid of people which causes property damage (agricultural, vehicle strikes, etc.) and a general weakening of their species.

Read ‘Thinking Like a Mountain’ (Leopold, 1949) for someone who can state this much more eloquently than me.
http://www.eco-action.org/dt/thinking.html

And I’d be, “Heh, that’ll teach Jones to keep his damn dog on a leash.”

Anonymous

Interesting that you are saying the deer are “encroaching” into suburbia. I would contend that the reality is exactly the opposite. The habitat loss is due to suburban encroachment into wilderness. And the problems in these suburban / wilderness interfaces will inevitably continue to grow. It is a people problem, not a wildlife problem.

Roar

As it turns out, nature works folks, and we are part of it. Nature, however, doesn’t always go the way of the technocrat. Perhaps, with all of our “superior” technology or intelligence, we could just try to figure out how we could actually try to fit into nature, rather than destroy it when we don’t like its optics.

Anonymous

That was horrifying! I don’t know how anyone with any sense of empathy or compassion could NOT be horrified seeing an animal terrified and being beaten, no matter what the reason for it being there, or who’s responsibility it was for having let it loose. Still, calling for the photographer to intervene is insane, I mean, look at that thing!

Daedalus

I don’t think people who don’t leash their dogs are assholes.

But I *do* think they’re still responsible for all the dog does.

You wanna take the risk that your dog will be trampled by a deer or captured and tortured by a town sicko or get into something it shouldn’t and attack some kid, with you being held responsible for that kid’s medical bills…

….well, okay.

wrybread

“You wanna take the risk that your dog will be trampled by a deer or captured and tortured by a town sicko”

What the hell planet do you live on? You really need to stop watching TV. Put the remote control down. Now! Put it down!

Someone above said he felt that the pro leashers in this thread nicely summarize what’s wrong with America, that we’re all too afraid of various boogeymen. And I completely agree with that theory. And I think you (Daedelus/#145) nicely summarize what’s wrong with America even more. I call it “The Myth of the DAngerous Stranger”, how we’re taught by the TV that everyone we meet might be dangerous, and that we have to be constantly on guard. It keeps us isolated and fearful. Personally I try very very hard not to believe this myth. I’ve met a ton of strangers all over the world and not a single one of them has been dangerous. Not one! And I’m 40 and have traveled frequently, my whole life. People are great, people are friendly, the only “sickos” are on TV, and the myth of them is keeping you too afraid to live your life.

And before you respond that “well look at the video! there’s dangerous deer out there!” let me say that this is EXCEEDINGLY rare, that’s why its on youtube. And those other “sickos” on TV are EXCEEDINGLY rare too, that’s why they’re on TV.

I say lighten up, live a little, you’re not only keeping your own life overly fearful, but that of those around you too. Look at you right now, trying to introduce some excessive fear to us.

And I’ll say it again: stop watching the damn TV!
- sgnp
  
  The examples Daedalus may have given are extreme. The chances of a dog being accidentally struck by a car are much greater than being attacked by a deer or sadistic human being.
  
  In most towns with leash laws a car vs. dog accident puts the owner of the dog in the hot seat for both the medical bills for the dog and any damage to the car. The dog doesn’t even have to be hit for this to apply:
  
  From the site: http://doglaw.hugpug.com/doglaw_081.html
  
  ——————
  
  Example. A California man let his dog roam, in violation of a local leash law. The dog ran into the road, and a pickup truck crashed trying to avoid it. Two men riding in the back of the truck were thrown out; they suffered serious permanent injuries. A judge ruled that the dog owner’s violation of the leash law was negligence, and awarded the injured men $2.6 million. (The dog owner’s insurance company ended up paying the whole amount, even though the owner’s policy limit was $100,000.)
  
  ——————–
- Raj77
  
  Yeah, that’s fucking lovely wrybread; live *your own* life. However, when it comes to pets, you have a responsibility to keep them safe, within reasonable tolerances. Dogs in suburban/urban environments who aren’t on leads get hit by cars (or beaten up by deer) because their owners are both sentimental about them running freely all the time, and too lazy to take them out of the city for a proper run a few times a week. That’s unarguably true. What it has to do with your pre-packaged rant about TV, I don’t really know.
  - wrybread
    
    > That’s unarguably true.
    
    Ha, you’re funny. Always interesting when someone argues that their position in an argument is “unarguably true”. Nicely played.
    - Raj77
      
      Ha, you’re funny. Always nice when someone refuses to debate substantive issues, instead focusing on a rhetorical device. Nicely played.

Anonymous

A loose dog is a tenderized dog.

Keep your dog leashed and gated.

It’s the law.

-Wolfman Jack

EH

This is why you should get your animals from a shelter or pound. You don’t need money clouding your judgment at a time like that.

Anonymous

what gets me is that the cat is following them and all over the fawn, and the dog is down the street and it goes after it. that is awful to watch. It would be worse to be there, and there really isn’t anything you can do without the deer turning on you…

Anonymous

I don’t see why the dog got attacked. But the cat had it commin’

timbuktukathmandu

That’s why you should always have a loaded firearm at ready when you encounter a deer. That could have been a baby

James

Based on the collie dog being okay god that was funny, it’s like the deer was dancing on top of him.

rimstalker

I present: Fat guy vs. deer:

http://www.bildschirmarbeiter.com/video/reh_vs._dicke_person/

JoshP

@22 et al.
I wish I could make my youngest hound watch this, as she occasionally makes a charge at the guys who take their horses up the road in front of our houses. I can only imagine horse vs. dog to be worse than deer vs. dog.
Some mention above was referred to wild vs. domesticate. I think I read some good science in Diamond’s Guns Germs and Steel about why we have the animals we have and others that aren’t.
Take the zebra vs. horse dichotomy. Zebra refuse to corral (from what I’ve read, I’ve got as much experience zebra wrangling as I have breeding live squirrel or whatever), they smash themselves into the sides, to their detriment, and eventually break out. Or they refuse some other essential characteristic of domestication. Deer do the same thing. From that hilarious anecdote of dude vs. roped deer I’d say deer psychology is not pliant enough to withstand handling. Deer are good meat, but don’t mesh with human society like passive herders like the cattle breeds.
So we don’t have herds of deer yet.
But Berry College, if you look it up, keeps and feeds a local herd. I swear the things wear berets and smoke cloves when the humans aren’t looking. They just wander the very large, rural campus. What makes our dogs and cats ours and deer not ours is precarious, but very there.
Great video, I will forever love the ‘boop I gotz the deerz nose’ cat. What the hell was he thinking?

Anonymous

Another reason to not be anywhere near a deer: deer tick -> lymes disease.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/insects/deerticks/index.html

As someone else stated, the dog seemed startled that it was being attacked – I would have thought instinct would have kicked in and told it to get the hell out of there.

Did it seem like the cat in the beginning was contemplating if the fawn was food or a toy?

Anonymous

Can we get a unicorn chaser?

ZippySpincycle

Damned if I’m gonna chase a unicorn; those suckers will trample you flat.

Anonymous

this is where they get the saying: Curiosity Killed the Cat!!

Anonymous

That dog seriously should have been on a leash or at least behind a fenced yard… especially since some kids get scared of dogs, they chase after cars sometimes, and might have wondered into the road. I think the person recording who was screaming at the deer was seriously an idiot… really… you think that deer is going to understand you? She’s defending her fawn.

Anonymous

I am a true dog lover!! but this deer was only doing what she felt necessary to protect her fawn. The owner of the dog should have him/her protected in the yard or on a lease and the person who videoed this should be happy that the “animal” didn’t attack her.

Jackasimov

First I was like, where are you running off to sweet momma deer? Your baby’s getting left behind. Then I was all like DAMN! Dog got an asswhippin’!

“Small domesticated lion you pose no threat.”

Leash your dog, dog luv-ahs.

Anonymous

If the dog had been on a leash, they’d have been in closer proximity to their owner. The owner wouldn’t have been close to the deer, and if the deer charged, the owner probably would have dragged the dog along with them, instead of the dog just laying there, and taking a beating.

A dog on a leash is a dog at least somewhat under control by the owner.

If the road is paved, and houses are that close to the road, there’s no way to confuse this with being a rural area.

Oh, and another reason to not let your dog be unleashed – it won’t get “accidentally” poisoned by a neighbor with a grudge. It won’t “accidentally” knock up, or get knocked up by, another dog. It won’t defecate on someone else’s property, and leave the owner an excuse that they didn’t see it, and couldn’t possibly clean up after it.

Daemon

Remember folks, deer may be cute but they can and will break you like a twig if they think you’re a threat to their kids.

Tbag

That’s a big ass white tail.

Anonymous

No, that’s an average size mule deer.
Anonymous

JUST Protecting her baby deer. she was a small deer too.

cat and dog will learn from this,
Anonymous

Its not a White tail by the Way Its a Mule Deer
cacarr

That looks like a Mule Deer, not a White Tail.
Anonymous

Actually, I think that’s a mule deer ._.
If you compare the tails, the mule deer has a more rope-like tail and a whitetail has a brown topped tail with a flasy white underside. Sorry, couldn’t help but comment Dx

Anonymous

I know it is kind of a dick thing to say, but that dog should have been on a leash or in a backyard.

Anonymous

Not a dick thing at all. Dogs should not be running around like that. Have been attacked too many times by dogs while jogging.

pecoto

I worked at a camp where some kind soul had rescued a fawn and raised it. It would probably have been better for all concerned if they had brought in some professionals to raise it in a way that would not make it too friendly towards people. It was not shy about humans, and did not seem to mind if a few people approached it to pet it, but after the first few got within range, it would kick and buck, hitting random people with it’s razor sharp feet (not kidding about this one, several people got stitches as a result) and it’s mace-like head (once again, not kidding. A counselor with broken ribs can attest to this one). It’s only a matter of time before the one at the camp is either put down or seriously injures someone enough to result in a huge lawsuit. Wild animals are undomesticated for very good reasons….approach them at your own peril. If the person filming this incident had tried to save that dog, it is likely they would have been severely injured, if not killed. I love dogs but dogs =/= people.

Rendalee

Here in midwest US, people are killed every year by deer. Some directly but more in car versus deer colisions. We have them in our town square. Our town has a population of 36,000 people.

Yes, we should monitor our pets. But it seems a shame that we control our dogs while the kids are given free range.

Icksnay

I fail to see what the doe did wrong here, or why her actions were a problem? Don’t want your dog stomped by a wild animal forced to roam your suburban gardens because they’re running out of room to roam elsewhere? Keep it on a leash or in the backyard. The real problem with this video lies in the description: “A newborn fawn creates a dangerous situation when mom gets protective.”

It’s not a dangerous situation if your cat is inside, your dog is inside, and you all leave the fawn alone. This is just a case of stupid people not knowing their stupid. The animals did nothing wrong here.

Xopher

What the humans did wrong was exterminating the predators that keep the deer population down.

Honestly, suggesting that people just always keep their dogs inside (and hello, the dog wasn’t attacking the fawn) does indeed strike me as an example of “stupid people not knowing their [sic] stupid.”
alisong76

Who here is saying the doe did anything wrong, Ixnay?

Rosetta

If the dog was on a leash in a front or back yard, the deer could have stomped it just as easily and the dog wouldn’t have been able to run away. Its not like the deer understands how a leash works.

ToMajorTom

I do hope the dog is OK, but you just don’t mess with a mama’s baby. Circle of life and all that…

But I think the fawn and kitty could have been friends. Bridging gaps…

Anonymous

and this is why, they killed bambi;s mother!!!! because she kicked the hunter’s dog’s ass!!!

Anonymous

Another good reason why people shouldn’t let their dogs off leash.

Anonymous

For a moment I thought the deer was being excessively aggressive, then I realised that in the fairly limited deer brain, there probably aren’t separate slots for ‘dog’ and ‘wolf’. No matter how lovable or tame your family dog might be, from the perspective of a deer its a viscous pack predator whose MO is to stalk you and nip chunks off you until you are tired and then tear your throat out.

Whoever owned that dog should have got it out of there long before things became a live demo of the ‘nasty, brutish and short’ lives of wild animals.

Anonymous

Dogs kill deer frequently. I have seen it done by a single dog.

snakedart

The inevitable result of an encounter between our “peaceable kingdom” of pets and suburban lawns, and creature from the wider world, doing what mothers instinctively do to defend their young.

moop2000

Truth be told, I found the fawns reaction to be most interesting. All the other reactions I expected in some way, but I like the fawn’s quick drop and hide to a potential danger, and it reacted faster than the doe!

1MacGeek

Rather rural?

There is security camera video out there, somewhere on the intertubes, of a deer that waltzed into a Wal-Mart in Muscatine, Iowa one fine morning.

Hey, the robo-doors didn’t distinguish between man and beast and obligingly opened and let the deer wander right in. It was perusing the goods when a manager -female manager-gave it a full cross-body tackle, wrestled it to ground, and then *held it there* until the animal control people arrived about 20 minutes later. I know this because my wife – who, at that time – worked in the bakery and was a witness to the entire incident.

If you doubt the toughness of women in Iowa, please remember : Disparaging remarks about our women will get your ass kicked… by our women. ;-)

Full text of the May 1, 2002 AP Story :

“MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — Shoppers at an eastern Iowa Super Wal-Mart got more for their buck when a deer showed up in the produce section this week.

An adult deer walked through the Muscatine store’s automatic doors around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. It passed the greeter and headed for the vegetables.

Wal-Mart spokesman Tom Williams said the deer entered the front of the store near the deli and produce sections. The deer became startled, jumped and slipped on the floor when it landed.

Store employees held it down until animal control officers arrived to guide the deer out of the store without incident.

“Unfortunately for the deer, it didn’t get to eat anything or buy anything,” Williams said. “It maybe made an interesting day for some customers.”

There were no injuries or damages.”

ackpht

Clearly the doe saw the dog as a threat, even though it was fifty feet away and doing nothing- the similarity to wolves definitely comes to mind. The poor dog had no idea what was going on.

On the other hand, the doe didn’t immediately see the cat as a threat, even though it was obviously stalking the fawn.

The cat probably just figured the doe was the tallest dog he’d ever seen. Luckily for the cat, the “run like hell” response is one of the basics in the cat behavior toolkit.

Do not mess with a baby deer

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