Navy Island Deer Through Window

[Dan Andrews]

Deer crashes with family over holidays

Posted 22 hours ago

Oh deer, what to do when an unexpected guest just "drops in" for a visit between Christmas and New Year's.

The Coutinho family, who live on the Niagara River Parkway across from Navy Island, decided it was best to call the police.

After all, this particular guest was not only unexpected, but also uninvited. After breaking into the place by smashing a window, she just lay on the floor, barely moving and was in no hurry to leave. She also knocked over furniture, plants and damaged a home computer that was sitting on a desk near a window.

Because of her size, the Coutinho family placed a second call to the Niagara Falls humane society just in case any backup was needed. They have experience handling these types of cases.

"My heart was pounding in my chest," said Joyce Coutinho, who was at home with her husband, Claude, and her two children, Nik and Anastasia, when they heard the sound of breaking glass coming from a room at the front of their house at about 2:45 p.m. Thursday.

Joyce said she was told by one witness that 13 deer swam across the Niagara River from Navy Island, crossed the road and one headed toward her house where it jumped through a window.

After hearing the sound of breaking glass, Nik said he went into the den to investigate and couldn't believe what he was seeing.

There was a deer in the house, lying on the floor with its legs spread out and it appeared to be a little stunned.

"I thought it was going to freak out," said Anastasia. "All I could think about was what are we going to do? It doesn't belong here."

The deer remained on the floor for about 20 minutes before police arrived on the scene.

"It was really cute. I don't think it really knew where it was. It was pretty good. It knocked over a chair, but it left the Christmas tree alone."

Anastasia said the deer got up and went into the dining room where it knocked over some potted plants and ended up spilling some water on the floor.

Nik had opened the front door so the deer just walked out and ran across the front lawn toward the road, where it was nearly struck by a vehicle, jumped back into the Niagara River and swam back toward Navy Island.

According to a study conducted in 2002 for Parks Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, there are between 60 and 80 deer on the 1.2 kilometre-long island.

It's estimated that an island of that size can really only sustain 10 or 15 deer.

When the deer population is too high, the vegetation that's on the island gets depleted. When there is no food, the deer become too weak to swim back to shore and many starve to death, according to one Fort Erie conservationist and environmentalist.

There's a cull to reduce the number of white-tailed deer on Navy Island. There's a partnership between Parks Canada and Six Nations. Members from several Iroquois communities are reducing the number of deer using only the traditional method of bow hunting, under an agreement with the federal agency.

tricciuto@nfreview.com

[rick]

So that's what happened. I was walking across the pedestrian bridge in Chippawa when four NRP's and Animal Control went speeding by on the parkway. Was going to go investigate but had to get ready for work. Interesting story.

Now my question is, if this guy had a gun would he have gotten into any trouble if he shot the deer? They say you can't shoot a guy who breaks into your house but what about an animal?? Maybe a stupid question but I'm tired.

[Guest canadadude]

Maybe set up a tree stsnd in that dudes den .......nice warm area for hunting