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11/13/2002 Archived Entry: "Off topic: Savaged by sheep"

For one crazy week back in 1994, the newspapers in Southern Ontario seemed to have a disproportionate number of bizarre attacks by animals on humans. I began collecting them on the off chance the animials were finally wising up and overcoming their human oppressors. They're a bit odd: "Dog shoots man" (yup, its true! 5 dozen pellets!), "Animal writer savaged by flock of sheep" (it was James Herriot, author of All Creatures Great and Small), and finally "Bull kills women inside her home" (she was playing cards at the time). Now Steven Johnson, author of Emergence, reveals (from a NY Times article): "[Deer] are struck by cars, trucks and motorcycles more than a million times a year, with the accidents killing more than 100 people annually and causing more than $1 billion in damage. The human toll makes deer deadlier than sharks, alligators, bears and rattlesnakes combined." So don't rest easy just yet!