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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.”