Posted on 10/16/2021 6:05:05 AM PDT by SJackson
ARENAC COUNTY, MI — Showing no fear of humans and with a distinctive item around its neck, an antlered deer attacked a woman on her Arenac County, Michigan property.
While the woman survived the bizarre attack despite numerous puncture wounds, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is reminding residents that wildlife should indeed stay wild.
On Sept. 26, DNR officers responded to a residence in the Au Gres area for a report of an antlered white-tailed deer having attacked a woman, according to Lt. Brandon Kieft, DNR district law supervisor.
The woman in question, 64-year-old Patty Jean Willis, had been getting ready for church when she let her dogs outside and heard them making a ruckus, she said. Looking into her backyard, she saw a deer standing there. Adding to the oddity was that the deer wore an orange collar around its neck.
Willis’ son and husband went outside and the deer wandered off, she said. About 10 to 15 minutes later, she went outside to tend to her chicken coop before heading to church.
“I got about halfway to the coop when I seen that deer coming at me with its antlers down, fast,” Willis said. “It was charging me. Luckily, I saw it , ‘cause it would have got me in my side.”
Willis turned just in time for the deer to hit her head-on.
“It hit me hard and knocked me back at least 10 feet on my back,” she said. “I grabbed its antlers somehow in the process. They were the first thing I could grab. I was in shock.”
Pinned to the ground and grappling with the ungulate, Willis began screaming as her arms grew weaker and the antler points pierced her skin.
“I just screamed, screamed, and screamed as loud as I could,” she said. “I’ve never screamed that loud in my life. I thought, ‘This is it, I’m not gonna make it.’ My arms were failing me.”
Willis 45-year-old son Luke Willis heard the screams and came running. He scared the deer off his mother and helped her to the house, though at one point the deer made another charge toward them, Patty Willis said.
The injured woman ran inside, dripping blood throughout her home. Her husband, JR Willis, fetched a pistol and fired a shot in the deer’s direction, though the Willises believe the shot missed.
Patty Willis ended up being hospitalized for three days and received 21 stitches to her hip, right leg, and left hand.
“He really bruised me up,” she said. “It was pretty horrific and very traumatic.”
She believes her son saved her life.
“That deer was out to fight,” she said. “It was trying to kill me. It wasn’t trying to be nice to me, that’s for sure. It’s a very dangerous deer.”
DNR officers began an investigation into the attack. In doing so, they visited another nearby residence they had been to for a complaint in June 2020, Kieft said.
“At that time, we responded to a residence where a family had been either trying to rehabilitate a fawn or had just taken in a fawn, almost as if it was a pet,” he said.
The DNR issued a warning to the family at that time and released the fawn into the wild, as it was alert and acting normal.
“We told the family, ‘Hey, you can’t do this. This is illegal,’” Kieft said. “The family was honest with us and said they found the fawn and didn’t know what to do with it.”
Michigan law does not allow citizens to keep or rehabilitate wildlife without permits. Only licensed animal rehabilitators are allowed to possess injured or orphaned wildlife.
“You need to have some type of training and certification,” Kieft said. “The law doesn’t allow you take any wild animal and make it captive.”
What’s unknown is if the deer from the June 2020 incident is the same one as the one who attacked Willis last month.
“The victim’s family believes this is the same deer,” Kieft said. “We can’t confirm that. We don’t know that.”
The family from the June 2020 matter, on being questioned about the recent attack, told DNR personnel that their teenage son had developed a bond with the initial deer. When asked if the son might have put a collar on the deer after it had been released into the wild and possibly returned to their yard, the parents said they didn’t know if he had or not, Kieft said.
Additionally, the DNR on the Labor Day weekend of 2021 had another call of a deer being in a backyard about a mile or two from where the recent attack occurred.
“We’re pretty confident that the deer in question was roaming around,” Kieft said. “Maybe the deer frequented backyards and looked for quick, easy meals but wasn’t necessarily being kept. There’s really no proof of who put the collar on and there’s no ability for us to prove the deer had been locked up anywhere because we have those other reports of it wandering miles away.”
The collar itself is not proof the deer had been kept, as sometimes people slip such things onto deer to protect them, Kieft said. The logic goes that if hunters see such a deer, they might think it belongs to someone or is being studied and thus not harvest it, Kieft said.
A deer wearing such a collar does not make it off-limits to hunters, though.
“If a hunter is following the normal rules, is hunting in a safe spot, and has a license, they can harvest this deer,” Kieft said. “If they’re not a hunter and they see it popping in and out of their backyard and are fearful it may attack them, they’re more than welcome to call us and I’ll send an officer out to take a look at it.”
Since the Sept. 26 incident, the DNR has not received any calls from people having seen the same collared deer.
While people who take in wildlife often do it with good intentions, Kieft stressed doing so can cause more harm than good.
“We understand the public wants to help wildlife,” he said. “We appreciate that; however, if you’re not trained to rehabilitate animals or to house animals, and you don’t have the facilities or permits, please don’t. When you start to have close human contact with animals, their lack of fear of humans can be a bad thing.”
Case in point, the deer that attacked Willis likely did so due to its absent fear.
“Whoever did it in that area, it’s clear this deer is not scared of humans and I think that’s what caused this incident to happen,” Kieft said.
Good thing their 45 year old son is living with them!
The deer has not been seen since the husband fired a pistol at it.
I am sure that is mere coincidence...
It has been nearly three weeks, and it was commonly seen before that.
I’ll bet those antlers aren’t registered. Probably purchased in Indiana by a straw buyer and smuggled into Michigan.
they said they “didn’t know” if their son had put the collar around the deer’s neck.
My sister was bitten by a moose once.
Woman was lucky it wasn’t rutting season.
Walt Disney’s fault. Also, always steer clear of deer wearing bling.
But the important question is… Is she vaccinated?
OK. Now LISTEN, you!
FIRST, it was the bear attack story - right where Beau is going Elk hunting in two weeks!
TODAY, it’s a woman, much like myself, gored by a buck as she was wandering in the woods - I wander in our deer-infested woods a few times a week!
Stop pinging me to these horror stories! When The End comes, I want to be surprised, ya hear? :)
Shades of Marjorie Kinnon Rawlings!
Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti.
But it is.
Just because an animal loses its fear of humans does not mean it is tame. It is still wild, and not your friend.
Just because an animal loses its fear of humans does not mean it is tame. It is still wild, and not your friend.
It’s Muslim. Allahu Rackbar.
Those people were the neighbors that had cared for a fawn and ordered to release it, not the victim's family.
Pinned to the ground and grappling with the ungulate,
Oooo, someone found the thesaurus key on his computee.
The saurus ?
What is a saurus ?
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