The headline? "Metro Moose Tranquilised By Wildlife Officers".
Apparently, the errant moose had been wandering into the local ballpark and soccer pitches of St John's. Newfoundland has a lot of moose - and subsequently, numerous car vs. moose accidents occur all year long here, with many being fatal. (Imagine driving at 100kmh and smashing into an animal that grows up to 2m tall at the shoulder, 3m long and weighs up to 600kgs and can run up to 60km/h... yeah... just imagine!)
Every so often, we have fellow Canadians from other provinces state that our news is "boring". However, in this respect I agree with other Newfoundlanders that we prefer to have stories about errant moose and polar bears than to have stories about the latest shooting and stabbing.
In this case, I was taken aback by the fact they bothered to tranquilise this moose, manhandle it into the back of a pickup truck and then drive it off to relocate it elsewhere. After all, the people here enjoy a supper of moose stew and moose burgers. But it did make me smile. I can't imagine where else someone would bother to go to such lengths to "rescue" an animal of that size, but it seems in Newfoundland that's par for the course as wildlife officers here also tranquilise polar bears, airlift them and relocate them to the Arctic. Compare this to other provinces, that have simply shot said polar bears, citing them as "dangerous" - when they could have - at far greater cost, of course - been tranquilised and relocated.
We loves our wildlife!
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