The Thing About Moose
I’ve mentioned several times that moose are insane. Except for cows and their calves, and a short time in the Fall, moose even hate other moose. People often end up shooting moose, because there is no other way of stopping their attack. Of course, under Alaskan law, if you kill it, you eat it, or get ready for a major [four trailing zeroes] fine.
If you have to shoot a moose to protect your dogs, even in a sanctioned race, you still have to stop and butcher the animal, then take several hundred pounds of meat on the sled with you. Hopefully the weather is cold or you are close to civilization.
The heavy snow this year is leading to more moose encounters than normal. Moose don’t like to break trail through the snow any more than humans do, so they will use any roads or trails they find.
Irving, a wheel dog on Karen Ramstead’s team was put on the injured/reserve list as the result of a muscle tear to a rear leg caused by a moose encounter on a training run outside of Willow.
On Friday, Demon, a new lead dog on Zoya DeNure’s team received bruises to his shoulders from a moose on a trail in Anchorage, across from a ‘Jiffy Lube’ and strip mall.
Zoya really wants Demon to run, as a reward, the ultimate ‘good boy’, because he is one of her ‘rescues’. I hope he gets his chance, but I doubt he will make the whole trip. Zoya and the vets will be watching him closely.
2 comments
That’s too bad about Karen & Zoya’s dogs. It’s hard to believe one of the encounters was at a Jiffy Lube and mall! There are just certain things you don’t expect to run into at the local mall, ya know?
One of the main things that make moose so dangerous is that they are not afraid or even leery of people. They are one of the few wild animals that isn’t. That makes these encounters all too common anywhere moose choose to live.