COLORADO SPRINGS – Wildlife officials in Colorado have announced that a woman was fined more than $1,000 after they believe she fed and raised a young deer that later gored a Black Forest woman.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife issued two citations Monday to Tynette Housley, 73, who allegedly took a day-old fawn into her home and raised the deer for a year before it attacked a woman walking her dog Friday, The Gazette reported.
Housley was also issued a warning for possessing wildlife without a license, agency officials said.
Housley did not immediately respond to phone calls made by The Associated Press requesting comment.
The young deer was euthanized shortly after it rammed its antlers into a woman, knocked her down and gored her as she attempted to escape the attack, officials said. Lab technicians found that the deer’s stomach contained out-of-season foods such as hay, corn and possibly potato.
Authorities said the woman was hospitalized overnight for serious lacerations to her head, cheek and legs.
“We can’t say it enough: Wild animals are not pets,” agency Wildlife Manager Frank McGee said. “Feeding deer habituates them to humans. They lose their fear of humans and that leads to these outcomes that are tragic for both wildlife and people.”
McGee said injured and orphaned wildlife should be taken to licensed wildlife rehabilitators.
