"Customers at the Family Dollar in Staunton were likely trying to save a buck or two while shopping at the deep-discount outlet on Friday, October 25. But they lost one instead when a seven-point, 130- to 140-pound deer vaulted through the store’s plate-glass window at around 10:45am and proceeded to run—bleeding all the way—around the sales floor, to the stock room and into the staff bathroom. There it shut the door and locked itself in, kicking and bucking the fixtures into oblivion. Police arrived on the scene minutes later and, after crawling through the ceiling tiles to get to the restroom, “euthanized,” as The Daily Progress so delicately put it, the terrified, wounded animal.

Family Dollar manager Stephanie Branch witnessed the incident, as did about a dozen customers. “Oh lord, nothing like that has ever happened here,” she says. “And I hope it never happens again.”

Unfortunately, it did. Just a few weeks later another deer crashed through the window of the Mattress King on 29N to much more damaging effects. Cindy Kandler, comptroller at the Richmond-based Mattress King, says the store will have to take a loss of between $7,000 and $10,000 on nearly a dozen blood-spattered beds, more than $900 for two windows and a yet-undetermined amount for repairs to the carpet and antler-damaged drywall.

Both incidents were dismissed by police and animal-control officials as flukes, freaks of nature. And they could be. But between two kamikaze bucks, increased vehicle-deer collisions in some parts of Virginia, and a recent visit to town by at least one not-so-bashful bear, urban encounters with wildlife seem to be more frequent of late. Is this a trend caused by the ubiquitous regional development boom? Are we just having an especially fauna-unfriendly year? Or have Bambi & Co. finally snapped, leaving the hunted to become the hunters?

“There are many factors, we can’t pinpoint all of it,” says Ron Hughes, district wildlife biologist for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, of the recent unfortunate zoo-to-you situations.

“We’re getting some development—there are houses popping up everywhere. But people think it’s displacing the animals, and that’s not necessarily the case. We’re just getting more people out into the country so more animals are meeting humans,” he says. “And some species, like bear, tend to come into these areas because there’s food. Their noses get them in trouble.”

It was trouble, all right, back in mid- to late October when at least one black bear roamed the City. The ersatz Yogi (City police speculated, but never confirmed, that he might have a sidekick—whither BooBoo?) sniffed around backyards and chowed down on bear necessities found in Venable-area garbage and birdfeeders until October 22, when a police officer shot it twice with a shotgun loaded with DoubleOught buck. The bear survived, but has not been seen since (Hughes suspects he’s gone into hibernation).

Not that bear sightings declined overall. This year alone, the VDGIF counted more than 100 nuisance bear complaints in Albemarle County.

Those numbers are drastically reduced in the City, says Charlottesville Police’s animal control officer Bob Durrer. He says this year’s bear incident was the first in Charlottesville since 2001, when they tranquilized and moved two bears, one near the intersection of Watson Avenue and Park Street, the other on Pepsi Place.

Deer are more common. Durrer says animal control receives several calls each year regarding the buck-and-doe set, mostly when they’ve been hurt jumping fences or involved in car accidents (while no local statistics were available for deer/car collisions, travel gurus AAA put the national number at 725,000 annually).

Durrer says that deer and bear are about as wild as the wildlife get in the area, although he handles the trapping and releasing of about 120 to 130 raccoons or groundhogs each summer, too. “It’s just nature, and people don’t want it around their property,” he says.

But like it or not, nature isn’t going anywhere. With any luck, Virginia won’t see the severe ursine numbers currently plaguing parts of New Jersey, where the state temporarily issued hunting licenses to deal with nuisance bears. Still, Virginia’s bear population is booming just like its human counterpart. VDGIF’s annual bear harvest increased 8.4 annually in the years between 1989 and 1999, with nearly 1,000 caught in each of the past few years.

That means it’s important to know what to do in case one of Goldilocks’ friends shows up in your backyard. Shooting bear isn’t a good idea. Hughes says that black bears are profoundly non-aggressive—VDGIF statistics attribute only 47 human fatalities to the species since 1900. Moreover, a bear’s diet is 75 percent vegetation. Instead, the best way to deal with bears is simply to scare them away by making noise, like yelling, banging pans or using an air horn. Should those not work, he says, shoot with rubber bullets or paint guns. And don’t worry—as the apparently terrified officers did—the animal probably won’t charge.

“People really don’t have to fear about the bear retaliating,” he says. “They’re not that way. TV has given a false impression of bears. They’re generally shy. The only time they come toward a human is to find an escape route. They’re in survival mode. Animals don’t think like we do.”

Expect to see more deer, too. The deer population is a little more stable, Hughes says, but is getting out of control in certain areas of the State, especially Northern Virginia. Up there rampant development means a lot less hunting—the No. 1 tool used to control the constantly multiplying fauna. Deer will continue to be a presence in urban life because, frankly, they like it here.

“Man actually creates a wonderful habitat for deer when we develop,” Hughes says. “We open areas up, give them a nice food supply with grasses, clover and shrubs growing around people’s houses. What we like to plant is what deer like to eat.”

They don’t, however, know what the hell buildings are—hence that whole jumping-through-windows thing. “The deer will find itself in a situation where they see in a window the reflection of a forest or an open habitat and they’ll run to it,” Hughes says. They don’t mean any harm and certainly aren’t looking for a great price on a bed frame. They’re confused, like Nicole Richie on a dairy farm.

And so are the humans who come in contact with them. Family Dollar manager Branch described her encounter as “scary,” but also heartbreaking. Forget the broken window, bloody carpet and wrecked bathroom. She was concerned for the broken deer. “That was the worst part,” she says of watching the terrified creature. “It was just very sad.”

Mattress King’s Kandler agrees. “The money part is irrelevant. The insurance will cover the damage. I just hate for the deer to do that, to be so confused and then kill itself,” she says." (Eric Rezsnyak, C-VILLE Weekly, December 16-22, 2003)

Editor's Note: See also, Deer Accident on Meadowcreek Heights Road and Deer Accident on Brandywine Drive and 4 Legs, 4 Wheels No Winners and Jim Heilman Comments on Cleaning Up Road Kill.