I must say, hearing this made my day.

"Mr. Buck Fought Back"
By PEGGY O'HARE and ANITA HASSAN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Dec. 6, 2008, 7:24PM

Officials said the deer, named Mr. Buck, was a favorite of schoolchildren at Bear Creek Pioneers Park.

Officers arrested a 23-year-old man in the decapitation of Mr. Buck, a beloved deer at Bear Creek Pioneers Park's wildlife sanctuary who authorities have since learned fought back as he was attacked last month.

Brandon Eugene Gregory was arrested at his apartment late Friday by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officers and Harris County Precinct 5 deputies. He is charged with taking a wildlife resource without landowner consent — a state jail felony offense. His bond is set at $5,000.

Mr. Buck's severed head was recovered in a white chest freezer at Gregory's apartment in the 13300 block of West Road, said Sgt. Johnny Longoria with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Special Investigations Unit at a press conference at Beer Creek Park Saturday afternoon.

Along with the tools used in the slaying, Longoria said authorities also recovered the bodies of two additional improperly tagged deer on the apartment patio that had been taken from an adjoining county.

The November killing and mutilation of Mr. Buck shocked animal lovers across the Houston area. The 8- to 10-point buck was comfortable around people and let park visitors scratch his chin.

A park ranger found the white-tailed deer's headless carcass in a pool of blood Nov. 25.

Authorities have since learned Mr. Buck did not go down without a fight.

During a confession, Gregory told authorities he jumped the fence that night. When he was about 15 feet from Mr. Buck, the deer lowered his head and charged toward him, Longoria said.

The deer then knocked Gregory to the ground, pinning the man in the upper leg with his antlers, Longoria said. Gregory allegedly pulled Mr. Buck towards his body with his left hand and used his other hand to fatally stab the deer with a knife, Longoria said.

"It sounds like self-defense, but he (Gregory) shouldn't have been in there in the first place," Longoria said.

Gregory told authorities he used the knife-and-bone saw to sever Mr. Buck's head, before using bolt cutters to cut the chain-link fence to flee the scene, Longoria said.

He told authorities he would have taken the deer's entire body, but his injuries, which he described as being deep enough to fit half his pinky finger through, were too severe.

After all the publicity the case garnered, Gregory told authorities he was did not go to a hospital for fear he would be caught, Longoria said.

Gregory could not be reached for comment Saturday. His girlfriend, who answered the door at his northwest Harris County apartment, became tearful and said she could not talk to the media.

Longoria said Gregory did not give much of a reason for the killing, except that he had a great admiration for the deer's antlers and that he wanted to see exactly how tame Mr. Buck was.

"If he wanted to see how tame he was, he should have just come up to the fence and fed him like everyone else," Longoria said.