BANGOR – A 600-pound moose made its way through the streets of downtown Bangor early Wednesday morning and after a one-hour pursuit was killed by a game warden, according to the Bangor Police Department.

Bangor police Officers Wade Betters and George Spencer answered the 3:30 a.m. call from a concerned resident but later were forced to call in District Game Warden Joe Bates for assistance.

Bates first came in contact with the cow shortly after 4 a.m. in a back yard on Lincoln Street on the city’s west side. He said several attempts were made by the officials to get the moose back to the woods safely; however, they were unsuccessful.

Looking to other solutions, Bates said, “tranquilizing didn’t look like a very good option.” By the time he got to the moose, Bates said, she was hot and very stressed. He was fairly certain that she would not survive being tranquilized.

The warden also was concerned that traffic would increase soon with the morning commute, and he didn’t want “even one person with a scratch on their face” from a car accident he feared the moose might cause.

With the location of the moose in mind, he felt there was nothing else he could do. After chasing the animal around Bangor for nearly an hour unsuccessfully, Bates was forced to shoot the animal.

“With the totality of everything,” Bates said, “I made the decision.”

The moose had made its way from the Bangor Municipal Golf Course on Webster Avenue to Lincoln Street and down to Main Street and Shaw’s parking lot. Bates finally euthanized her in a vacant parking lot off Main Street near Quirk Auto later Wednesday morning.

The remains were taken to a butcher, Bates said.