They loved the moose to death

The story about the moose on the loose that was shot dead by police in Portland last Sunday, and the resulting outrage from onlookers who considered the killing entirely unwarranted, would appear to be further evidence that people do not always act like the most intelligent species on the planet.

Had the large crowd of moose oglers simply dispersed, as police and wardens had been urging them to do all morning for their own safety, the 1,000-pound critter probably would have just wandered out of town eventually to find romance in a far more appropriate setting than the shallow waters of a cove in the heart of Maine’s largest city.

But the crowd, unwilling to believe that the seemingly docile beast in their camera viewfinders could actually pose a threat to anyone, refused to leave. And the police, who should have used more law-enforcement muscle to make them leave, didn’t. So, with all the more humane options exhausted, the animal was dispatched with three rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun as it moved to within 100 feet of shore, thereby proving that it really is possible for well-intentioned people to inadvertently love an animal to death.

According to The Associated Press, however, that harsh lesson was lost on many of the horrified spectators, who jeered and swore at the unfortunate cop who had to do the dirty deed.

“I’m just appalled. It was not threatening the public,” said a Portland man who was on scene for the execution.

“I don’t know how many people cursed me to hell,” responded Sgt. Gary Hutcheson, who had hoped the people would get the message that moose in rutting season can suddenly turn from harmless Bullwinkles into long-legged versions of the bulls that trample people each year in the streets of Pamplona. “The problem is, people think they’re cute and cuddly. But, in fact, they are very dangerous animals.”

Perhaps the incensed onlookers might have been warier had they read the recent story of the large moose that charged a hunter in Newry, smashing the guy’s cheekbone and collarbone with its antlers before tossing him 20 feet into the air like a rag doll. Or the story of the game warden who had to shoot a young bull when it flattened its ears in agitation and threatened to charge.

“I just couldn’t get away from it quick enough,” said the warden, recalling that a fellow warden had been trampled by a moose and hospitalized a few months earlier.

Kim Morris knows a lot about the fickle nature of moose at this time of the year, and of the need to stay clear of any hormone-addled male that winds up looking for love in all the wrong places.

“I’ve seen many people get a lot closer to wild animals than I would consider prudent, that’s for sure,” said Morris, who is a wildlife biologist with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Your average bull moose, said Morris, can be much more aggressive and unpredictable when he’s got mating on the brain. Assemble a sizeable wall of people with cameras in front of the already edgy creature and the idyllic setting has the potential to turn ugly in a hurry.

“An agitated animal in that situation will either try to defend itself or try to leave,” she said. “If you happen to be standing in what the animal thinks is its best escape route, it could charge right through you or try to go over you. With an animal that big, it would definitely not be a good thing either way.”

And to all those angry e-mailers who criticized officials for not tranquilizing the moose, the preferred procedure if the animal is on land, Morris offers a dose of biological reality that half-hour TV programs like “Wild Kingdom” don’t have the luxury to show.

“It can take a considerable amount of time for drugs to affect a moose,” she said. “It could be 20 minutes before the animal went down. In the meantime, it could stray into deeper water and drown. If you go in after it to try to keep its head up, the animal could get so stressed that the drugs wouldn’t have any effect at all.”

Although every moose-in-the-neighborhood situation poses different challenges, she said, they all tend to share one thing in common.

“Whenever a moose comes into town, it draws a crowd,” Morris said. “Since no one really wants to have to shoot a moose, especially with an audience, the best thing for people to do is to go about their business and leave the critter alone to go about his.”