ASHLAND — Cyd and Gary Ropp were walking their two dogs near Ashland’s downtown Post Office Saturday morning when a deer reared up on its hind legs and attacked the dogs.

The attack lasted for more than three minutes and left the couple bloody and bruised from falling on the pavement to avoid the doe, as they tried to protect their dogs. The dogs, Australian shepherd and Labrador retriever mixed breeds, were uninjured, Cyd Ropp said.

“She was trying to kill the dogs and she was attacking us because we were trying to intervene,” she said. “She was rearing up, so she was way taller than us, and she was stomping down on us. She definitely wanted to kill the dogs. It was extremely frightening.”

The Ashland Police Department has received about five calls from people reporting deer attacks in recent weeks, Police Chief Terry Holderness said.

“This is an annual occurrence in Ashland, in part probably because there’s so many people walking dogs in Ashland, and because there’s so many deer here,” he said.

Attacks are not uncommon in June and early July, when does are fawning, said Steve Niemela, an assistant biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Rogue Watershed District Office.

Last weekend, a dog sitting on a Cave Junction porch was attacked and killed by a doe, he said. It’s rare for dogs to be killed in deer attacks, he added.

Niemela said the Cave Junction incident was the first report of a deer attack the department has received this year, but typically it receives between 15 and 20 such reports annually.

Usually, the doe’s young fawn is hidden nearby and the doe is simply trying to protect it, he said.

“Almost invariably the reason is because there’s a fawn around and the does get very protective,” he said. “They can be very aggressive and quite violent.”

The deer typically rear up on their hind legs and try to stomp on the dogs or, sometimes, their owners, he said.

Niemela said small- and medium-sized dogs seem to be attacked more often than large dogs. Rarely, humans are attacked when there is no dog present, he said.

It’s possible the deer mistake smaller dogs for coyotes or that the deer choose to attack smaller dogs because they are less threatening than larger ones, Holderness said.

During June and early July, people walking with small dogs should avoid areas with deer and should keep dogs on a leash, he said.

People should also avoid giving deer food or water, because as the deer grow more habituated to people, they often become more aggressive, Niemela said.

If a deer is acting aggressively, people should walk away from the area quickly, but should avoid running, he said.

The Ropps, who own The Albion Inn on Union Street, were able to get away from the deer after an unidentified man intervened and distracted the animal, Cyd Ropp said.

The attack occurred in an alley near Third Street, between B and C streets at 10:30 a.m. Ropp called 9-1-1 during the attack because she feared for her life as well as the lives of her husband and their dogs, she said.

“I was yelling bloody murder,” she said. “I was yelling ‘help,’ ‘stop,’ ‘save us!’ ”

She didn’t see a fawn nearby and isn’t convinced there was one.

“I think this deer has just gone crazy and because it was chasing us around and was pursuing us as we moved away. I think the deer needs to be relocated,” she said. “It was like Bambi gone bad.”

She’s now afraid to walk her dogs through town, she said.

Deer aren’t typically aggressive animals, and the attacks should largely stop in late July, Niemela said.

“They’re generally docile animals,” he said. “In certain situations they might become defensive or aggressive, but it’s important to remember that we get only about 15 or 20 calls a year, and there are literally thousands of deer in Jackson and Josephine counties.”

Hannah Guzik is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Contact her at 541-482-3456, ext. 226, or hguzik@dailytidings.com.

via Deer attack shakes up local couple | MailTribune.com.

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Just an awful story.

NEW PORT RICHEY – Just seven days old, the tiny baby’s bloody body was covered with more than 50 puncture wounds as Jackie Welch tried in vain to help.

“It scared … me,” Welch said. “I kept my mind together because I knew I had to do CPR to help revive him.”

Her efforts were not enough, however, and 1-week-old Thomas Carter Jr. died Wednesday afternoon after being mauled by a family pit bull mix described by one person as “lovable.”

The attack came in the same bed where the baby slept with his 16-year-old mother, Nicole Koezeno.

The boy’s mother apparently slept through the attack and wasn’t aware her baby was hurt until someone knocked on her bedroom door about 11:45 a.m. Wednesday.

“She started screaming, ‘My baby! My baby!,’ said Welch, a neighbor who had spent the night there and was in the mobile home’s hallway. “Then she said, ‘My dog bit my baby; he’s bleeding.’ ”

Welch went into the bedroom to try to help. The baby wasn’t breathing, so she administered CPR as someone else called 911.

The baby was pronounced dead a short time later at Morton Plant North Bay Hospital. It was the second fatal mauling of a child in the Moon Lake Estates neighborhood in the last four months.

“It’s very painful and shocking,” Welch said. “I feel guilty because I wasn’t able to save him.”

Welch, 32, lives next door, but spent the night there with her 2-year-old son. She does that from time to time because her brother, Jonathon Gibson, and his girlfriend live with Koezeno and the baby’s father, Thomas Carter Sr.

She said the pit bull mix, Sidon, routinely slept in the bedroom with the baby and his parents. There is tension between Sidon and her brother’s pit bull, Buddy, who spent the night in her brother’s bedroom, she said.

Welch said she woke up at 7 a.m. and never heard a sound from the dog.

“The dog didn’t make a noise or nothing – no growling, no barking, no nothing,” Welch said.

She heard the baby cry at about 9:30 a.m., but shortly afterward the baby became calm.

“It cried for two minutes and that was it,” Welch said. “After that I didn’t hear nothing.”

Welch has known the dog since it was a puppy and said there has never been a problem, even with her child. She guessed the dog was about 3 years old.

She described Koezeno and Carter, 20, as loving parents who cared for and doted on the baby. They came back from the hospital excited with their new bundle of joy.

“They took very good care of him,” Welch said. “They didn’t leave him out of their sight.”

Welch warned that people with pit bulls should keep them away from children.

“If people have pit bulls, they either need to get rid of them or put them in a fenced-in area in the back away from children,” she said. “You never know when they’re going to turn.”

Neighbors said Thomas Carter Sr. once lived at a nearby mobile home with several pit bulls. He brought Sidon with him when he moved into the mobile home at 10548 Olsen Str. in Moon Lake Estates.

Deputies got the call just after noon.

David Lance, Carter’s boss, was with him mowing lawns when he got the call from Koezeno.

“She called, frantic,” Lance said. “He couldn’t even understand her.”

Carter rushed to meet the family at the hospital.

“That was his pride and joy,” said Lance, who has worked with Carter for three years. “They were both proud parents.”

He said he was stunned to hear of the attack. He’s known Sidon for years and said the dog often would be outside when they mowed Carter’s lawn.

“That dog was lovable,” he said.

Pasco Animal Services officers took the dog to their facilities in Land O’ Lakes, said Denise Hilton, manager of the agency.

The dog will be euthanized, but it wasn’t clear when, Hilton said.

She couldn’t confirm if the second dog at the mobile home during the attack also was taken.

“It’s heartbreaking all around,” Hilton said. “It’s something that’s horrific and you never want to happen.”

This is the second child in Pasco — and in Moon Lake — to be killed by a family dog since December.

On Dec. 12, 22-month-old Dallas Lee Walters was mauled to death by a relative’s Rottweiler-Labrador mix during a birthday party at his great-aunt’s house at 9615 Jerome Drive. The 100-pound dog was euthanized a short time later.

It was Pasco’s first reported fatal animal attack in at least 35 years.

Near the site of Wednesday’s mauling, Winona Walker has a 19-month-old daughter and a pit bull, but she said she keeps the dog and child separated. She said she doesn’t like to walk on that street because so many dogs roam loose.

Hilton said pet owners must keep in mind that no matter how tame and loving a pet might seem, it’s an animal with animal instincts that can be unpredictable.

“Just in general, people should not trust animals around children,” she said. “We, as adults, have to protect our children … . Keep them (animals) away. It’s the safest thing to ado.”

Hilton said she has no recorded animal complaints at the couple’s current address but didn’t immediately know if they had other complaints elsewhere.

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MOIRA, N.Y. — A northern New York man is recovering after being attacked by a 10-point buck while he was loading firewood. Authorities said Gerald Dabiew, 56, was cut and bruised from head-to-toe by the buck outside his house in Moira, 200 miles north of Albany.

“He got me down on the ground, and it was then I knew that he really wanted to kill me,” Dabiew told The Watertown Daily Times.

Dabiew’s house is surrounded by woods, so he didn’t think twice Friday when he saw the buck crossing the road — until the animal charged and knocked him down.

Dabiew wrapped his legs around the animal’s neck and held onto its antlers as it battered him. Every time Dabiew tried to wrestle himself loose, the buck would ram him again, he said. The attack on Friday lasted several minutes before the buck ran off.

“I don’t know why he came around. All I was doing was throwing wood,” he said. “I’m not even a hunter.”

He said wood he was dropping into a bucket could have sounded like the antlers of jousting deer knocking together, a noise hunters often mimic to lure deer during rutting season.

Deer attacks are uncommon, but not unheard of, said wildlife biologist Ed Reed of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“This is breeding season for whitetails, and they get pretty aggressive, usually with other bucks,” Reed said. “They have been known to attack people. If he sees something moving, he feels like it’s somebody encroaching on his territory.”

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FLORISSANT – A woman called a deer and tried to pet it, but the deer lowered its head and charged her instead, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

The 63-year-old woman was at her sister’s house Monday evening when the attack happened. The sister’s family had seen the deer at their home several times.

The attacked happened at the home on Colorado Road 31 near Florissant on Monday. A driver on the road saw the attack and tried to stop the deer. The person was able to scare the animal away.

The Teller County Sheriff‘s Office responded and while medical workers were helping the woman the animal kept coming back to the area.

One of them said, “We had to constantly harass it away from us.”

The woman, Joan Nutt, was transported to Pikes Peak Regional Medical Center in Woodland Park where she was treated for cuts and bruises.

Nutt says she had grabbed hold of an antler of the animal and tried to fend it off, but it knocked her down.

Wildlife Officer Aarno Flohrs says the animal walked right up to him when he arrived at the scene. The animal was tranquilized and later euthanized because it was “deemed a threat to human safety.”

“There was no direct evidence Nutt was feeding the animal, but this deer’s behavior was a clear indication that someone in the area had tried to domesticate a wild deer and treat it as a pet,” Flohrs said.

Nutt’s brother-in-law, Ervin Stohl, told the DOW this particular buck came to their house every afternoon. He says there is usually a bunch of females nearby.

Stohl said, “There were no does today and the buck was angry.”