Before stepping off the bus on a recent visit to 108 Mile Ranch, Emmett Collens spotted four deer outside and made a comment the driver thought was funny.
“I hope I don't get attacked by a deer.”
On the way to his grandparents' home on Chintu Drive on Oct. 8, Collens says he walked up to a fawn on the side of the road and pulled out his iPhone to take a photo when he heard “clack-clack-clack” on the road behind him.
“I turned around and there was this doe staring me down,” explains the 15-year-old from Horse Lake.
“It had its ears all the way back, its hair was all standing up. I thought, 'This isn't good'. I started to back away and it took a couple steps, jumped up on its hind legs and hit me on the chest with its two feet and knocked me down.
“It started hitting me in the face with its feet.”
Collens estimates the attack, which bloodied his nose and left some deep bruising and scratches on his face, lasted between 12 and 15 seconds.
“It hit me a couple times pretty good on the chin. It scraped my face up with its hooves because it was kind of just like stomping all wild.”
When the animal finally stopped, Collens stood up and headed for his grandparents' home nearby. After a few steps he turned and was surprised to find the same animal trailing him about 10 yards back.
He says even after he entered the home, the doe stuck around.
“It was really ticked off.”
Sgt. Len Butler of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Conservation Service says aggressive deer complaints are on the rise, especially in the spring when does have their fawns.
“In our zone, we have so many deer populating towns and rural areas, it's a real tough one.
“It's becoming more of a problem in a lot of these areas. Some of the bigger cities are to the point now they're doing a cull to try to remove some of the deer that are staying in the cities.”
Collens didn't report the Oct. 8 attack, but Butler advises people do so by calling 1-877-952-7277.
“[We're the ones that] remove an aggressive deer if that deer has attacked somebody. It's pretty important if we're in a town setting because of a discharge of firearms or possibly a tranquilizer or something along those lines.
“If something's attacked somebody, it has probably happened before or will happen again.”
Anyone looking for more information about reducing human-wildlife encounters can visit www.wildsafebc.com, he adds.
Collens, an experienced hunter, says he thinks he was probably to blame for the attack since he got between the doe and its fawn.
“I should have known not too get too close. I've seen lots of people get attacked by moose and seen lots of dogs get trampled by deer on YouTube.”
The experience hasn't really changed the way he thinks about deer, he adds. But he agrees there's a moral to the story.
“Don't get in between a doe and its fawn,” he says.
“Lesson learned.”