An Ohio grandmother known for rescuing and rehabilitating injured deer was tragically killed by one of the animals on her own property — and now a heated debate is unfolding over which buck was responsible.
Jodi Proger spent more than a decade caring for whitetail deer on her five-acre home in Stewartsville, Ohio, located about two hours from Akron. Her passion turned deadly on Nov. 15 when she became trapped inside an enclosure with an aggressive buck, according to WSYX. Belmont County officers had to shoot the deer to reach her, but she died at the scene from her injuries, which authorities have not yet described.
Proger’s journey into wildlife rescue began in 2013 after she witnessed a doe struck and killed by a vehicle on an Ohio highway. A tiny fawn was circling its mother’s body, and despite hesitating at first, she turned around, picked up the newborn, and took him home.
“I wasn’t gonna do it but I did it,” she told The Dodo. She named the baby Wheezer and fought to keep him two years later when a complaint to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources nearly led to the fawn’s removal.
State officials threatened to seize and euthanize Wheezer — a situation similar to the case of P’Nut the squirrel in New York in 2024 — but Proger ultimately kept him and expanded her efforts to help more deer. She often described Wheezer as being “like a big dog,” telling 12 On Your Side in 2015 how domesticated he had become.
Her Facebook page is filled with photos showing her bond with Wheezer: the deer lounging on her furniture, wearing coordinated holiday outfits, and even sharing food with her. In recent photos, Wheezer appears with large six-point antlers.
Over the years, Proger also brought in several other deer, many of which appeared in her social media posts. Some photos show a wild deer standing calmly beside her granddaughters, with one child even giving the animal a kiss.
After news of Proger’s death surfaced, her daughter Jennifer Bryan publicly denied rumors that Wheezer was involved. “Wheezer DID NOT kill my mom,” Bryan wrote on Facebook, noting that he had been neutered as required by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources when Proger received her permit.
Male whitetail deer are powerful animals, often standing over three feet tall and weighing as much as 300 pounds, according to the National Park Service. Bryan stressed that her mother was fully licensed and understood the dangers of working closely with wild deer.
She praised Proger’s lifelong dedication to rescuing animals and asked the public for compassion, writing, “This is a sad tragedy and we deserve RESPECT and time to grieve.”
Both the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ohio Department of Agriculture are investigating the incident, WSYX reported. The Belmont County Police Department did not comment when contacted by The Post.
According to the Washington Post, deer-related vehicle collisions make deer the deadliest animal in the country, killing around 440 people each year and accounting for over 96% of all wildlife-related fatalities.
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