Man shoots deer that attacked his pregnant daughter in her own yard

A Colorado man shot and killed a deer that attacked his pregnant daughter in her own yard Friday night. The self-defense shooting joins a series of moose and deer attacks that have occurred in the state over the past two weeks.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said in a news release that the incident occurred Friday in El Paso County, near Colorado Springs. They said the deer jumped into the daughter’s fenced yard and attacked her two dogs. When the woman tried to scare the deer away, it “reared on its hind legs” and attacked her.

The woman’s father then went outside with a shotgun and tried to thwart the attack by shooting the deer with rubber bullets. (Officials said this was the same nonlethal ammunition they had given the man in the past to scare away black bears.) It’s unclear how many rounds of rubber bullets he fired, but it wasn’t enough to stop the deer.

“The deer ignored the gunshots and continued charging toward the woman, who attempted to flee,” CPW officials said, “so her father shot the deer.”

It is unclear what type of shotgun blast the man used in his follow-up shot, and a CPW spokesman could not immediately provide further details.

After a brief investigation, CPW concluded that the man killed the deer in defense of his daughter and did not file a charge. Officers also found a fawn nearby, which was taken to a local wildlife rehabilitation facility. They believe the fawn belonged to the deer, which may explain why the deer attacked the two dogs in the backyard in the first place.

“Deer, elk and moose can become aggressive in the late spring and early summer when their young are just born and defenseless,” CPW wildlife manager Tim Kroenig said of the incident. “Most aggressive behaviors by these animals have something to do with a dog, which they view as a predator and a threat to their young.”

Continue reading: Last week, three dog owners were attacked by a deer in the same Canadian city

Wildlife officials gave the same explanation for another moose attack that occurred earlier that day in another Colorado city, more than 130 miles to the north. In that incident, a woman in Estes Park was walking her leashed dog in the middle of town when a female moose attacked her from 20 yards away. The moose, which had a calf nearby, knocked the woman down and kicked her several times.

Friday’s incident was the third moose attack in Estes Park in just eight days. Although the small tourist town experiences conflicts between moose and humans every winter and spring when the herds migrate to town from nearby Rocky Mountain National Park, CPW officials called the series of attacks “unprecedented” given the circumstances.

The other two moose attacks, which occurred on May 31 and June 4, involved young children in Estes Park. Neither child had a dog with them and they appeared to be preoccupied with their own business at the time.

In the June 4 incident, a four-year-old boy was attacked and trampled by a female moose at the Stanley Park playground. CPW officials said in a news release that two moose calves were hiding nearby, but no one noticed them until it was too late. The little boy was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released later that day.

The May 31 incident involved an eight-year-old girl who was riding her bike in Estes Park when she was attacked by a cow moose from about 180 feet away. The moose trampled her several times and she was released from the hospital the same day after treatment. Upon investigation, a game warden found the cow with her calf and had to shoot the cow with a non-lethal beanbag bullet when she became aggressive toward him.

Continue reading: Colorado Sheriff’s deputy shoots attacking moose

“Elk with young calves are notoriously aggressive, but we have never seen a year like this,” CPW wildlife manager Jason Duetsch said Friday, referring to the three attacks that have occurred in Estes Park since May 31. “All three attacks were unprovoked and unfortunate accidents. We have no clear evidence that these attacks came from the same animal, which underscores how unusual this behavior is for elk.”