BOUNTIFUL, Utah — Security video captures the stare-down between a deer and a defenseless dachshund on the owner's front lawn, capturing the final moment before an attack.
“I always had in my mind that she would die of old age,” said Lacey Randall. “That she would just be done one day. Not in a million years did I think it would be a deer attacking her.”
Lacey Randall and her family were in their Bountiful home last week while their 15-year-old dog, Bella, was wearing a leash on the front lawn.
“She laid back, kind of in the defense mode, laying on her back, and the deer was just whacking her with its hooves,” said Randall.
The family took Bella to the vet and was advised the injuries were too much.
“We could try and do surgery, we could try and fix her, but she probably wouldn’t even last a surgery,” she said.
Bella died at home surrounded by her loved ones. She was buried in the backyard.
Similar deer attacks happened this summer in Sandy. Tigz, the Yorkie poo, was trampled in his backyard and a neighboring Shih Tzu, Griz, barely survived.
“I don’t want to hurt the deer but on the other hand I’m like, ‘Well, this can’t keep happening,’” said Randall.
Bountiful City received a lot of complaints about deer and enrolled in the Division of Wildlife Resources’ program to remove deer to control the population. That began in July 2021 and goes through July 2023.
“I definitely have shared my story with everybody on the street who even has little toddlers just playing in their front yard,” she said.
The Randalls will cherish the fifteen years they had with Bella, they’ll just never look at deer the same.
“I walked by them and I saw them and there was a little ‘ugh’ when I saw them,” she said. “I never felt like that before now.”
