Woman fights deer after poodle attacked

By JOHN GRANT EMEIGH - Montana Standard - 10/22/08

A 61-year-old woman from Silver Star said she got into a tussle with an aggressive deer after it apparently attacked one of her poodles Monday morning.

Carol Lince said she had to fight a doe when it charged her in her yard at her home just south of Silver Star, about 35 miles southeast of Butte.

Lince said she sustained bruises where the deer rammed its head into her abdomen area.

“I’m still sore today,” she told The Montana Standard Tuesday afternoon. Lince said she had let her three poodles outside, when she heard one “screaming bloody murder.” She went outside and saw a deer attacking the smallest dog.

“I see this big ’ol doe that’s ramming him into the ground,” Lince recalled. Lince kicked at the deer’s hind legs to try to get the animal off her dog.

That’s when the deer turned around.

“When it looked at me I realized I bit off a little more than I can chew, but I’m going to fight,” she said.

She said the deer rammed her with its head and pushed her into her fence.

Lince balled up her fists and started walloping the deer’s head until it eventually jumped her fence and ran off.

Lince said her dog, whose name happens to be Little Fighter, was pronounced OK after being checked by a veterinarian.

Butte-area game warden Matt Strozewski said deer can become aggressive toward animals or people.

“Any wild animal can become aggressive,” he said, adding that deer can become especially aggressive during rut.

Lince, a longtime carrier for The Montana Standard, said she didn’t think twice about confronting the deer because she is protective of her poodles.

“I’m not a wimp; I don’t back down,” she said.