“Donna the Deer Lady” is in on the joke and, in a follow-up interview with the Fargo, N.D. radio station that made her a YouTube sensation, said she now feels “incredibly stupid” about her misconception about deer-crossing signs.
Donna’s first call to Y94 “Morning Playhouse” was on Sep. 17 during their weekly “vent line.” She said she had been in three car accidents involving deer in the past few years, and all of these accidents occurred shortly after she saw a deer-crossing sign.
“My frustration is that the Minnesota and North Dakota departments of transportation would allow these deer crossings to be in such high-traffic areas,” Donna said. “I’ve even seen them on the interstate. Why are we encouraging deer to cross the interstate? I don’t get it — that’s such a high-traffic area.”
The hosts can be heard quietly laughing at Donna, who thought the government should take responsibility for their carelessness.
“The government put the deer crossings there. They can direct the deer population anywhere they want to by moving that deer crossing sign,” she declared indignantly.
At the end of the call, the radio hosts promised to help her spread the word. And they did, to great effect. The YouTube video of the call posted Oct. 8 quickly went viral and currently has over 1,958,000 views.
The follow-up interview with Donna was posted Wednesday. Donna, now dubbed “Donna the Deer Lady,” thanked the Y94 hosts for being so nice to her in their first call.
“I never really thought about it enough to realize that I was kind of being ridiculous,” she said.
Donna said she has been teased by family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. Children have shoved printouts of deer crossing signs in her neighborhood and one day, a plastic life-size deer showed up on their front yard.
“I mean, criminy Christ people, I get it now!” she said.