Deerfoot moose killing draws fire from animal rights group

[Catty1]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2008/07/30/moose-deerfoot.html

Deerfoot moose killing draws fire from animal rights group
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 | 8:56 AM MT
CBC News

The response to a young cow moose found wandering along Calgary's Deerfoot Trail on Tuesday afternoon was "horrifically mishandled," an animal rights group says.

The roving moose brought traffic to a halt on the busy freeway in the city's northeast for about an hour, crossing the road several times. It then ran into a nearby field where it was killed by a police sharpshooter.

The Calgary Animal Rights Coalition questions whether enough effort was put into tranquilizing the animal before the decision was made to kill it.

"A moose is a large animal, one of the larger mammals, and it shouldn't be that difficult [to tranquilize it]," said spokesperson Sandy Alvarez-Toye.

"I suspect there was laziness involved, and they were more interested in just dealing with the problem than helping the animal itself. It was horrifically mishandled."

But officers could not get close enough to tranquilize the moose, and they were worried someone was going to get hurt, said Darcy Whiteside, spokesman for Alberta's Sustainable Resource Development department.

"We tried as much as possible to tranquilize the moose and unfortunately we just were unable to. The public safety concern was too high," he said.

The meat from the carcass will checked over and if it's OK, it will be given to a needy family, he said.

One comment from this article's blog:


Regardless, the reason people get so upset with the activists is because they, more often than not, have mixed priorities. I recall one former co-worker who lectured me that eating meat is murder, yet she wore a leather purse, leather shoes, and had a car with a leather interior. When I questioned why it wasn't okay to kill animals for survival, but it was okay for fashion, she had no response.

I completely respect people who stand up for, or believe in, any cause. But they also need to follow through with their convictions.

The quote in the article was: "We tried as much as possible to tranquilize the moose and unfortunately we just were unable to. The public safety concern was too high," he said.

For those that would doubt that there is no risk to public safety, keep in mind that a moose weighs, on average 957 lbs, stands between 1.5 - 2.5 m at the shoulder, and is one of the largest North American land mammals. Hitting one, even at 50 km/h, would damage your car, and likely result in severe injury.

I have no doubt the police would have at least attempted to sedate the moose, but if someone was killed between the animal getting hit with the dart and it actually collapsing, there'd be a further public outcry. They're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place, in my opinion.


And from CTV:

A spokesperson for Alberta Sustainable Resource and Development insists conservation officers were never able to get close enough to safely tranquilize the animal. Darcy Whiteside says the moose was shot when it was 250m away and in order to tranquilize you really can't be any more than 50m away.

[jennielynn1970]

Isn't that what they're trained for?? To get close enough to an animal to tranquilize it and then move it if need be???

I didn't think you would be a conservationist to just say, ya know, I couldn't make the shot/get close enough to tranquilize it, so, oh well, we killed it instead.

Whoever that person was, or persons, they need to go back and get some remedial training.

[jonsidneyb]

I don't want to see any animal needlessly killed but I think before judgement is passed much thought needs to be put into this.

Only one kind of tranquilizer works on moose and it doesn't work very good. Moose that have been shot with a tranquilizer are actually more dangerous before the animal goes down if it goes down at all.

The mammal that kills more humans in Canada than any other is the Moose. The animal that kills more humans than all others in Alaska is the Moose. The wild animal that kills more than any other mammal is the Moose. Moose have killed people on college campuses, and in towns.

A helicoptor has been brought down by a tranquilized moose. Groups of tied up sled dogs have been killed by moose. Family pets that could not get away have been killed by moose.

I would prefer that moose in the wild to be left alone. I really don't want them bothered anywhere but I can understand the reaction of people that know moose when they get into more populated areas. How do they explain to people when a moose kills someone and the officials explain that tranquilizers are somewhat ineffective against them due to their make up.

They might have been wrong to shoot the moose but then again they might have been right. What would you do if you had to make the choice. It is not always that easy. I bet if they did dart the moose and a couple of people died they would be out of a job and someone what would shoot it would be in there place.

There is some old footage of a moose killing a man in front of a store then it goes and kills another person about a hundred yards further up then it is shoot by locals.

I love animals, I really do but sometimes things have to be done.