Roebuck attacks mother, son
12/08/2006 19:28 - (SA)


Vienna - An Austrian farmer faces charges of negligence and bodily harm after a roebuck he kept in an enclosure escaped and attacked a woman and her two boys in a forest.

According to the Austria Press Agency, the mother and two sons, aged seven and eight, were gathering wood in the forest at Sarleinsbach on Thursday, when the animal attacked the elder boy.

His mother was attacked when she tried to rescue him, said police in a statement on Saturday.

The two were taken to hospital. The eight-year-old had injuries to his chest, throat and legs.

His brother was unharmed in the attack.

The farmer came to the family's aid when he heard their screams. He had had the animal for several years.

An infortunate but not too infrequent happening when a wild animal is domesticated and loses the ingrained fear of man, then it sums up to a match of brute force... Roes are rutting presently and bucks get agressive, charging everything remotely ressembling an intruder. The same may occur with Red stags but with lethal consequences, considering their weight and size (I know of 3 killings in the last 5 years + a game ranger tracked and eventually charged by a Stag. He emptied his Browning HP over the Stag's head, failing to scare him and then fled to dive over barbed wire, getting cut up in the process).

Although this was surely an extreme case, it is quite rare one sees roe kept in captivity - for the very reason of developing aggressive behaviour. Not only is it kind of rare to see roe kept in smaller pens where aggression againts humans would be most prominent, but even in "zoo like" (German: Wildgehege) where the animals would have quite a bit of space, it is rare to see roe. They are solitary animals with just a few exceptions, and they are prepared to enfore their territories to the death.
- mike

quote:

Originally posted by Andre Mertens:
He emptied his Browning HP over the Stag's head, failing to scare him and then fled to dive over barbed wire, getting cut up in the process).

Sounds to me like he should have aimed a bit lower.

He might have, of course, but, being a police officer, he must have been well aware of the legal consequences. In a case like this (closed season, private territory, no hunting rights, caliber not approved for hunting, etc.), self defense would have to be established in court.

I read an article in one of our leading newspapaer that in the Italian mountains the roe are in plague proportion and the Government has put a bounty on all roe killed. Some kind hearted person has offered 200 euros for you to adopt a roe instead of killing it,sounds like a recipe for disaster if you ask me..

Would the person who offered this bounty be responsible for any injuries caused by a hand reared roe?

regards
griff

quote:

Originally posted by Andre Mertens:
He might have, of course, but, being a police officer, he must have been well aware of the legal consequences. In a case like this (closed season, private territory, no hunting rights, caliber not approved for hunting, etc.), self defense would have to be established in court.

André,

I would have thought that as a police officer, and with shots fired from so close into it's haed, it wouldn't have been very difficult to prove that it was self defence.

Just to twist it a bit, some people might even veiw the police officer as being partially to blame if this "rabid" red deer killed some other unarmed and thus defenceless person shortly after his own narrow escape. Seeing as he should have put this dangerous animal down when he had a chance. What if the next person was an old lady who unlike himself, was unable to jump over barbed wire fences?

Well we're talking about an officer from the forestry and wildlife administration. An important part of his job is to investigate poaching. While some officers are dedicated and won't hesitate to apprehend armed felons at night, others don't and find it less dangerous and more ego fullfilling to harass hunters, controlling at all times (they're not all pro-hunting and in good terms with the hunting community...). Given these circumstances and had the ranger shot the stag, chances are that the owner of the local hunting rights would have pressed charges for his loss (hunting is quite expensive in this small country). The (some say : politicized) administration being known to only back up its officers in clear cut cases, our ranger could be left alone to prove its point, facing the money and relations of the deprived hunter. Not knowing the involved parties, I can't say what would have happened but it's not unusual to see a wealthy hunter hiring an expensive attorney to tear apart a game ranger in court. Considering the cost of hunting Red stag, one's loss is taken seriously. About the hypothetical old lady and we all hope she would have come trough unharmed, there's no doubt there would be questions asked about her trespassing private (and probably fenced) property.

I can see your point about the hypothetical old lady trespassing, and thus being to blame herself if that's the way property rights work down there. (up here, as long as you don't walk across someones lawn, you're basically free to wander where ever you wish on both private and govt property)

But I would still think that as the game warden must have been there in an offical capacity, supposedly in order to look out for the owners interests, that he would have gotten off the hook in such a life or death situation.

Kind of like when I was hunting elephant in Zim last year, and my PH was forced to shoot an elephant that charged us from a mere 3 meters. There was no question that doing so saved his life, and thus there was no trouble afterwards. This was as it should be IMO, as I value human life more than the life of an elephant or red stag. But I guess the laws and norms in Belgium are differant. Which is fair enough as long as everyone knows it.

Griff,
in this moment is impossible to have something like this solution propsed by Italian Government.
No, take a look at "Alternative to hunting" topic, and you will find the real Italian situation.
If the Government had put a bounty on them, I already took some day of holydays to make some extra money having fun