Exotic Deer Gores Man

My friend, Addie, in Dallas, Texas sent me this article yesterday written by Mark Lisheron for The Blotter.

A rare deer known for its full, sharply pointed rack gored to death a 27-year-old game manager last week at the Y.O. Ranch, a nationally known exotic game hunting ranch about 100 miles west of Austin.

Brandon Buchi, 27, of Mountain Home, suffered puncture wounds to the side and thigh after the deer, known as a barasingha, attacked after Buchi removed it from a transport trailer on the ranch grounds Thursday, Kerrville County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer said Wednesday. A volunteer firefighter who witnessed the goring attempted CPR unsuccessfully, Hierholzer said.

The barasingha died from the exertion of the attack, not an uncommon response from deer and some other exotic species, Hierholzer said. “They can be very aggressive,” Hierholzer said. “This was very unfortunate.”

Hierholzer said that in at least 30 years he could not remember a fatal attack like it in Kerr County, which has developed a reputation for its exotic Hill Country game ranches.

The Y.O. Ranch, founded in 1880, is one of the best known. The ranch is known for attracting private celebrity hunting parties, Hierholzer said. From Dec. 10-14 the Y.O. Ranch is hosting, at a cost of $3,500 a hunter, the Ranch Birthday Huntbash with Ted Nugent.

The ranch stocks rare species from around the world, including yak, wildebeest and 17 different kinds of antelope. A barasingha, which means 12-tined or horned in Hindi, is a deer native to India and Nepal. The barasingha, which looks like a small elk, has thrived on American exotic game ranches where ranch operators fetch thousands of dollars from people to hunt them.