Captive Deer Wounds Woman and is Euthanized by FWP

On the morning of Tuesday December 9, a 911 call came in with reports that a Florence area woman had been attacked by a white tail deer.

When the Ravalli county Sheriff's department Deputies and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens arrived at the scene of the attack, they discovered that a white tail buck that had been held captive was responsible.

"it's not something we run into very often," says FWP spokeswoman Vivica Crowser " and it's something that's illegal. You can't keep wild game animals in private possession. That's something that shouldn't have been going on and something that, fortunately, we don't see all that often."

The lady was taken by ambulance to a Missoula area hospital while the deer was euthanized by a Missoula area vet before being taken to the state wildlife lab in Bozeman for further testing.

Interview with Vivica Crowser:

Crowser says that the deer was euthanized as part of regular FWP protocol. "Anytime we have a case of a wildlife attack on a human there's a protocol that we follow . . . if you can identify and confirm that you have the offending animal in the attack the you euthanize the animal."

There have been no updates on the status of the woman injured in the attack. As far as any fines or judgements are concerned for holding the deer captive, Crowser says "those penalties and ultimate judgments are in the courts hands. it's something that if we were to write a citation on would be a judges decision. A lot of our efforts go into educating the public that it's not just something that's illegal it's something that poses risks to human safety and to wildlife"