Three deer attack and injure barking dog

Living in Central Oregon, you're likely to see deer roaming the streets and backyards, looking for food on a cold winter day. But as docile as they might seem, one Bend woman's scary story shows there's more to the creatures than meets the eye. Tiffany Rounds lives in Romaine Village, and is used to seeing deer out and about, though they'd never been in her small, fenced backyard before, "so I never worried about it being a problem."

But last week, the situation turned tragic, when a six-point buck and two does attacked Rounds' dog, Daisy, leaving her with serious injuries. Rounds said the area has a large deer population that roam in and out of yards, "fun to watch and see," until last Thursday, when the three deer attacked. She said she'd gone inside to grab her camera and take a photo "of the enormous buck, when my dog ran out the door, barking at the deer that were in her territory."



Rounds said the two does "immediately started beating her on with their hooves, and then the buck comes and tries to get her with his antlers - this big ol' rack and this small dog. So now she's got two deer on her, and I'm yelling - all I could do is yell," she said. "It happened so fast, I didn't know what to do or think." Rounds said she worries about small children who play in the area.

Steven George, a biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Bend, said humans aren't really in danger of an attack - but if there's a reason, they can go after dogs. "The deer don't differentiate between whether it's a domestic dog or coyote," George said. "They see a dog as a predator to them. It's something that wants to hurt them, or even kill them. And so they're going to be fairly defensive, and they can be defensive to the point of being aggressive toward that animal." Daisy suffered a punctured chest cavity and head wounds, but the vet says she's expected to make a full recovery.

With news video.