Elusive deer spotted wearing high-vis jacket in Canada: ‘Who is responsible?’

www.theguardian.com

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8mo ago

Elusive deer spotted wearing high-vis jacket in Canada: ‘Who is responsible?’

www.theguardian.com /world/2024/nov/27/deer-high-visibility-jacket-british-columbia

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8mo ago

Elusive deer spotted wearing high-vis jacket in Canada: ‘Who is responsible?’

www.theguardian.com /world/2024/nov/27/deer-high-visibility-jacket-british-columbia

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8mo ago

Elusive deer spotted wearing high-vis jacket in Canada: ‘Who is responsible?’

www.theguardian.com /world/2024/nov/27/deer-high-visibility-jacket-british-columbia

19 comments

The deer is responsible. Safety first.
This looks like something my mom would do.
She likes to feed all the nearby animals, and deer are no exception. They’ll show up in groups of about 10 or so, and in the spring, they always have baby deer with them. Sometimes, they get spooked and take off running as a group, but the baby deer will just lie down wherever their mothers leave them and wait for them to return.
It’s been happening like this for years, but I guess she felt bad for one of the baby deer or something, because she started getting close to it by talking to it or sitting really close, and eventually, she was able to pet it and feed it. I tried warning her about the diseases they could carry, but she wouldn’t listen. She just started using more hand sanitizer afterward.
The baby deer grew up, but it would always come over to my mom and let her pet its head while she hand-fed it. I’m sure she’d do something like put a high-visibility vest on it to protect it from cars if she thought about it.
That's absolutely a deer that someone had raised or tamed. They put a vest on it to prevent hunters from shooting it and/or to help drivers avoid hitting it if it wanders too close to the road.
Do people just legitimately not know about spotlighting anymore?
Like, they think "deer in the headlights" means the deer is suicidal and wants to die?
Granted I grew up significantly more hillbilly than most, but I thought everyone knew what an animal does when a bright ass light suddenly shines in its face. It stands completely still. Focuses only on the light, and won't even respond to a car at 60mph, much less someone else approaching with a safety vest.
- Dude, give some fucks and read the article.
  
  The article, hell, just look at the picture!
  
  I think you're confused...
  “It’s astonishing [to] me that someone was able to get it on the deer without serious injury to either party,” said Arnold. “I hope the jacket comes off either on its own or with help from conservation officers before it becomes a problem for the deer.
  The answer is:
  but I thought everyone knew what an animal does when a bright ass light suddenly shines in its face. It stands completely still. Focuses only on the light, and won’t even respond to a car at 60mph, much less someone else approaching with a safety vest.
  I don't understand why youre telling me to read the article for answering the question it asks...
  Did you think I was encouraging this because I explained how it was almost certainly done?
- It might just be a really friendly deer. There's one that travels through my neighborhood that will walk right up to you and I bet I could get a vest on it if I tried
  
  There’s one that travels through my neighborhood that will walk right up to you
  As crazy as it sounds, that's more dangerous for the deer than spotlighting it and putting it on with no cooperation from the deer...
  Like, I can't stress it enough: don't do either, just leave them alone.
  Wild animals should be scared of humans and avoid us. Because some humans should 100% be avoided, and most animals are really bad at differentiating. If a deer learns one human can be trusted, they'll trust all of them and walk right up to a hunter expecting food.
  And there's lots of ways it can go badly unintentionally too.
  If you spotlight a deer and wrestle a vest on it, it's sure as shit gonna avoid the next person it sees at least.
  So long run, you're doing more damage letting that deer walk up to you then psychopaths intentionally fucking with them.
  Just let nature be nature. Give it space to do it's own thing and remember in the long run no human has been executed for fucking with animals, but loads of animals are put down for doing what millions of years of evolution is telling them to do in a situation.
  Keeping us seperate from them is for their benefit, not ours. So even if you like doing it, just stop for their sake.
- What are you talking about? Wtf
- I don't think this is spotlighting. I think it's just someone thought it'd be funny.
  And a reminder, if you get caught spotlighting, you can get your truck confiscated and face heavy fines.
Honestly, for how much damage they can do to cars maybe we should start doing this on purpose.

19 comments