An Evanston, Wyoming woman was hospitalized after a run-in with a mule deer buck. She was gored with seven puncture wounds delivered by the four-point buck and her husband was also wounded when he tried to intervene.
Wanda Kaynor walked outside her back door along with her husband, Daniel, as they prepared to leave for an appointment.
"There was this buck sitting there, just laying there," Daniel said. The deer startled Wanda and the couple's dog, which led to an interaction between the two animals. That motivated Wanda to fight back, swinging a bag at the buck to get it to stop.
The deer knocked Wanda onto the ground, crushing a vertebrae in her back. Daniel tried to provide help and grabbed the deer by the antlers, only to suffer a puncture wound on his waistline himself.
"It happened so fast," he told KSL.
A nearby UPS driver helped lift Wanda into a vehicle and a neighbor drove her to the hospital. The buck stuck around the couple's yard long enough for a relative to report the incident to Wyoming Fish and Game, who sent a wildlife officer to euthanize the deer.
Though it's hard to blame her, Wanda definitely should not have engaged with the deer the way she did. When the safety of a pet is on the line, animal owners have certainly been known to do drastic things, but it's fair to say Wanda's actions led almost directly to the goring. There may not have been a preferred alternative action in the heat of the moment, but Wanda is certainly paying for her decision.
Mule deer are certainly not uncommon in this region of Wyoming, but human-deer interactions that end in such bad injuries are rare. Daniel Kaynor said Wanda will be in the hospital for several days before spending a couple weeks at a rehabilitation center.
"Having a buck stomp on you on the ground...I was pretty traumatized last night myself," he said. "Wild animals are wild animals. I think she's going to check that door when she comes out, for sure."
