Heartbreaking story of a newly born moose calf
What would you do if you find a newly born baby animal besides the dead body of its mother in a forest? You’ll definitely call concerned forest and wildlife service immediately. Newly born baby won’t survive long without mother or external assistance, so it must be rescued. Take a look at the video below. A man, Josh Hohm of Bozeman, came across this little baby moose that was just born. Unfortunately, the mother did not survive the delivery and died.
Josh was looking to camp somewhere in West Boulder Camground when he this baby walked to him. It was making some sound like its calling for something.
Josh did the right thing. He called U.S. Forest Service for help. Josh waited for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MT FWP) officers. Meanwhile, he clicked a couple of pictures and recorded a heartbreaking video showing this calf crying near the carcass of its dead mother.
He showed all sympathy and hugged this bleating calf that could barely walk and struggled to gain balance. He wrapped it in a cloth and caressed it.
The MT FWP arrived on the scene. Josh was happy to see them but not for long. One of the FWP official shot the calf right away. Then, the carcasses of mother and calf were detonated with high explosives.
The reason given was that MT FPW does not have any provision to rehabilitate moose. Blowing up their carcasses is the standard procedure to deal with the situation. The officials also believed that moose are not rehabilitated because they can carry diseases and parasites with them. In a scientific language, they call it ‘Animal Euthanasia’.
Josh was stunned. He was expecting a Disney-movie happy ending. Bewildered josh said:
“It’s just unbelievable to me that that’s how things are handled. It just sounds incredibly wrong. There were absolutely no steps taken to determine if it was sick, was it going to feed, were there facilities and resources available to care for this thing. These guys are on our payroll to oversee the protection and well being of these animals and this is how we ‘manage wildlife. It’s quite disheartening.”
The department is facing a lot of criticism after this news. The officials are making appearance to justify killing this newly born moose calf. They claim that science guides the wildlife management, not sympathy. They seems convinced that the calf was dead anyway because it can’t survive without colostrums found in the milk of mother. Over blowing up the carcasses, officials explained that it’s done so that bodies don’t attract bigger predators to the campground.
Surprisingly, in many other countries with moose population, the governments have special provision for rehabilitation of moose. For example, in UK, moose is a tourist attraction and government has provisions for special care and protection of our four legged friends. When, these countries have been rehabilitating moose for long, why MT FWP didn’t even try to test the calf for diseases or sickness? They shot it right away.
