Tame deer unpredictable

Nelda and Glenn Butner of Pasco became another statistic of deer aggression two weeks ago at the tourist village of Wallowa Lake in Oregon.

“You can’t really blame the deer,” said Nelda Butner, 71. “She was just protecting whatever she was protecting.”

However, if the doe was protecting a fawn, they didn’t see one.

The doe they encountered apparently has a reputation for picking fights with neighbors’ dogs, and the Butners’ cairn terrier, Mandy, may have sparked the encounter.

It was about 4 p.m. and the Butners were walking back to their RV from the cabin of friends who live in the resort community next to a state park and not far from Joseph. They mostly ignored a doe that emerged from the deep grass along the road since mule deer live like pets around the community.

People who visit the lake area often feed them, so the deer aren’t shy.

But this one kept coming toward the Butners. Glenn, 72, positioned himself between the deer and his wife and told her to keep going.

He said the deer knocked him down, which upset him and sent Nelda into hysterics. She started screaming and tried to run away, as Glenn got up and got in front of the deer again.

This time he punched the animal in the nose, but that didn’t slow her down. She knocked him down again.

“She didn’t hurt me. She was just knocking me off my feet,” Glenn said. “She was trying to get to my wife, and I think probably because she had the dog on a leash.”

The deer clubbed Glenn in the back and knocked Nelda down two or three times, too. Finally, Nelda let the dog loose, and it ran down the road.

“My wife felt the deer was going to kill her if she held onto the dog any longer,” he said.

The doe chased the dog and struck it once, but the dog jumped up into the arms of Mike Hamilton, Glenn said. Several neighbors had heard the screaming and came outside to run the deer off.

But it never left and just kept circling. Finally a park ranger from nearby Wallowa Lake State Park stopped and used a big club to hit the deer. Even then, it didn’t venture far off, Glenn said.

The state park’s manager confirmed the incident, though it happened off state property. But on Friday, neither the park manager nor the Wallowa County sheriff had any information about the deer’s fate.

About a week after the incident, Glenn said he heard a shot that made him think someone may have taken care of the deer.

Nelda, who took the brunt of the attack, has healed gradually. For a while, she had a black eye, a bruised chin, a lump on her forehead, and bruises on her thighs and shoulder.

Glenn, who was born and raised in Wallowa County, said he still enjoys looking at the deer. But he thinks the incident is an example of why people should leave wild animals alone.

“When I see them, if they leave me alone, I leave them alone,” he said.