Buck attacks Pa. couple

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Associated Press

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - A couple were seriously injured yesterday when a deer they were trying to shoo off their Clinton County property attacked and gored them, authorities said.

"This was like the one-in-a-million deer on the one-in-a-million day that wasn't going to get shooed," said Steve Wilcox, one of two state troopers who shot and killed the deer after in rural Lamar, about 10 miles southwest of Lock Haven.

Linda Yost found the seven-point buck blocking the back door of the home she shares with Frank Rishel when she tried to feed their cats in the morning, according to the Express newspaper in Lock Haven. She alerted Rishel, who went outside to chase the deer away.

Instead of being frightened, the deer repeatedly charged Rishel and knocked him to the ground. Yost called police and went outside to help, only to be attacked herself.

Wilcox said he and State Police Cpl. Todd Brian could hear Yost screaming when they arrived in separate cars a few minutes later.

The deer was on top of Yost, attacking her on the ground, while Rishel lay motionless about 10 feet away, Wilcox said.

"They were chest to chest, and the deer was goring her in the face," he said.

Brian hit the buck with his hand. When the animal lifted its head, Brian shot it in the neck.

Wilcox fired a few more shots as the deer ran toward him, killing it, he said.

Rishel, who Wilcox said is in his 60s, and Yost, who he said is in her 50s, were rushed to the emergency room at Lock Haven Hospital. Officials there would not release any information about the couple.

Whitetail buck attacks, injures elderly couple
Star-Gazette
November 15, 2006

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – Pennsylvania Game Commission officials are investigating an apparently unprovoked attack by a whitetail buck on two Clintondale residents Wednesday morning.

The incident along Fishing Creek Road began when a woman attempted to go into her backyard to feed cats, and a buck that was standing at her back door would not let her out of the house, according to a commission news release. Alerted to the situation, a man exited the house to attempt to chase the deer away and, without warning, the buck repeatedly charged and gored him with its antlers.

The woman contact State Police at Lamar, a short distance away, at 7:40 a.m. and Cpl. Todd A. Brian and Trooper Stephen E. Wilcox responded and found the deer attacking the woman , who had entered the back yard in an attempt to stop the deer from attacking the man.

Unable to get a clear shot at the deer, Brian grabbed the deer by its antlers and wrestled it away from the woman. Both troopers then shot the deer, killing it.

The elderly couple was seriously injured, police said. They were treated at Lock Haven Hospital initially. A call for a medical helicopter was cancelled because of heavy fog, and it was not known Wednesday afternoon whether either or both had been transferred by ambulance to a regional medical center.

The seven-point buck focused its attack on the heads of the man and woman, police said.

After the Game Commission was contacted, Clinton County Wildlife Conservation Officer (WCO) Kenneth Packard arrived and took possession of the carcass for transport to Dr. Walter Cottrell, the Commission’s veterinarian, headquartered at Penn State. Cottrell will conduct a full necropsy of the animal.

“While this appears to be a healthy deer, we have taken samples of the deer to conduct various tests for any sign of disease, including chronic wasting disease and rabies,” Cottrell said.

He noted that each year, the agency receives reports of one or two deer infected with rabies, to which all mammals are susceptible.

Packard said another possible cause of the attack is that deer are in the rut – the mating season – a time when bucks are at their most aggressive. For whatever reason, the deer chose to spar with these people. That is not behavior normally associated with wild deer, as they almost invariably keep their distance from people.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the immediate response and action of Cpl. Brian and Trooper Wilcox saved the lives of the two victims,” said Warren Stump, law enforcement supervisor for the Commission’s Northcentral District. “WCO Packard will begin his investigation into the incident, and will await results of the necropsy from Dr. Cottrell.”

Earlier in the week, a buck kept in a pen killed a man in Ellenburg, N.Y., near the Canadian border.

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