Montana News: There Was a Mad Moose On the Loose, So They Cooked Its Goose

News out of Montana this week proves the old adage that it doesn't pay to be a blind bull moose that's starving, tired and getting buzzed by snowmobiles. (OK, I can't really vouch for how old that adage actually is, but it's no less true).

State wildlife officials killed a bull moose blinded by eye disease that was gaining a reputation for attacking skiers and snowmobilers on a groomed trail near Big Mountain.

From The Missoulian:

Just ask the guy who grooms the snowmobile trails between Canyon Creek and the summit of Big Mountain. He encountered the moose back on Dec. 27, and reported it had attacked his grooming machine.

A couple days later, the moose kicked a snowmobile, ripping the hood right off. Later that same day, it kicked in the side of yet another machine.

...on Jan. 9, two groups of skiers - seeking quiet on the northern side of Big Mountain - startled the moose in two separate encounters.

One described the moose as "a big animal, and it's angry."

The other was forced to smack it in the nose with a ski pole to drive it off.

Still, the moose "came at me about 10 more times," said skier Kevin Green. "It was just mad and coming right at me. I just kept backing my way up the hill into the trees."

A moose unable to see would be unable to forage, and weakened by the lack of food, would be more likely to stick to the easygoing groomed trails rather than the deep woods. But that, of course, would put it into contact with skiers and snowmobilers, and they would have seemed a threat to the blinded animal, perhaps causing it to charge aggressively

...Still, officials noted that wildlife and recreationists have been co-existing in the Canyon Creek drainage for years, and officials were reluctant to kill the animal.

"We dispatch an animal only as a last resort," said Jim Satterfield, FWP's regional supervisor. "In this case, this was the only responsible course of action, given the incident with the skiers and the condition of the moose."

Did he say they dispatched the moose to a resort? Well that's nice. I wonder if that resort is anywhere near the farm my parents said they sent our German shepherd to when he started biting people?