fyi pets and deer

Not to hog up the thread but SGKKing brings up a good point with her tragic story of the deer attack. Man (humans) have become accustom as being the fiercest animal and top of the food chain but a lot of wildlife don't share his false ego. Maybe most are reluctant to attack us personally to have us for dinner but as with any wild or tame animal they have no difficulty defending their young or stealing a meal from us. A friend of mine said he was with other tourists at an outlook and one lady had a little unleashed dog that was running around yapping making a nuisance of himself. Out of nowhere a large hawk swooped down and carried him off. The hawk wasn't afraid of the people, he saw a meal. We have an occasional coyote comes through the yard but I don't hesitate to let our dogs out to whizz at 2:00am. I watched our Pit back down three one morning and I'm not concerned with a hawk carrying off our Rottie but desert camping is another concern. We camp in mountain lion country. I take the Rott. Pit & shepard for walks, keeping to trails because of possible snakes out in the Winter. I carry a pistol and keep an eye out in the surrounding desert for motion. I would hope to scare a cat off before he got close. The Rott would feed a cat for a couple days. What I'm thinking, we need to take our superiority out of the equation and see the environment that we place the safety of our pets in as a natural wild setting. Wildlife are opportunists, they grab a meal whenever they can and don't hesitate to defend their young no matter what the odds... Just a thought.... IMO... .