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Everybody knows stepping into a parking lot creates the possibility of getting run over by a car -- but by a deer?
Ken Worthy had just finished lunch at the McDonald's in Locust, North Carolina, last Wednesday when -- out of the blue -- a deer galloped across the parking lot and bowled him over, according to CNN affiliate WSOC.
That's pretty wild. I've had to sit in my car in my drive waiting on the deer to leave my yard. No way I'm getting out and risk being run down by one. They also look a whole lot bigger from just a few feet away, lol.
And here, the stupid tourists try to hand feed the deer. When I stop and tell them how ill-advised that is and how dangerous deer can be (I've tackled them in nets before. The most dangerous animal I ever dealt with was a half-sedated 60 pound fawn.), they laugh or look at me like I'm crazy or mean, and go on their merry ignorant way feeding the deer.
And here, the stupid tourists try to hand feed the deer. When I stop and tell them how ill-advised that is and how dangerous deer can be (I've tackled them in nets before. The most dangerous animal I ever dealt with was a half-sedated 60 pound fawn.), they laugh or look at me like I'm crazy or mean, and go on their merry ignorant way feeding the deer.
People refuse to accept that human-oriented deer are dangerous, not friendly. To them, a feeder is nothing but a supply of food.
Where we lived for a few years, the town was notorious for having literally hundreds of deer roaming everywhere right in city limits, crossing streets and lolling in little yards all the time. Eating every plant someone tried to raise, minus the least palatable ones and even then, you might be surprised by torn-off tops. I watched one jump from a dead standing stop immediately next to a 6’ tall fence, right over the top with no running start.
The town prohibited higher fencing. The speed limit was 25 mph or less everywhere. People had lots of gardens. Natural predators had been all but eradicated (“We must kill coyotes so they don’t eat our loose dogs and cats!”). And yes, fing idiots FED THE DEER.
I noticed that with deer, their response to any possible threat was indeed Fight or Flight. They do not think, they just blindly react. That includes bolting in an about-face from, say, a harassing loose dog...right into a car or fence or whatever. They don’t even look where they’re going TO in those flights. This might have been what happened in the OP’s cited incident.
Now we live in a rural area with large natural predators as well as seasonal human hunters. I don’t care about deer passing through our immediate home area, and I know they hang out here and there away from houses. The thing to watch for now is bored, untrained or disobedient loose dogs that chase wild animals.
The deer was probably in a panic. I recall when I lived in western PA a deer wound up inside a supermarket, and in desperation to get out it crashed through a window. Several months later I was in the same market and another deer showed up in the store. Fortunately, it got no further than the vestibule area, and people were able to shoo it back out the door, and it bounded away through the parking lot towards the woods.
Before the awful McDonalds was there, the deer were.
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