# Moose euthanized in Ishpeming because of ignorant public



## NickAdams (Jul 8, 2008)

Police: Publics involvement leads to shooting of animal

By SAM EGGLESTON Journal Ishpeming Bureau _POSTED: October 7, 2008_ 
http://www.miningjournal.net/?page=mscontent.saveContentMsg&showlayout=0&id=516589&nav=5006​ 
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ISHPEMING - "Everyone wanted to see the moose that was racing through town Monday.
That, said police, is the reason the cow is dead and two calves are motherless.
"In the end, all this moose was trying to do was to get away from the people who were chasing it and reunite with its calves," said Ishpeming Police Chief Jim Bjorne. "We would not have had to kill that cow moose if the public did not act like the paparazzi chasing it around like it was some type of Hollywood movie star. I may have given the order to shoot it, but I hold the public who were chasing it responsible for its death, and the ultimate deaths of the two abandoned calves that will not survive without their mother."
At 3:45 p.m., after having tried to keep the moose and its calves separated from the public and the residential areas of Ishpeming, Bjorne gave the order to have the moose put down as it made its way back toward the downtown area on the Iron Ore Heritage Trail. The animal's remains were transported to Marquette Meats where it is being processed so the meat can be donated to needy families.
"We're not pleased with the outcome, but it was the best of a bad situation and at least no people got hurt," said Brian Roell, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources who was present at the incident in the afternoon.
The moose and its two calves were initially spotted around 8:30 a.m. on the 600 block of East Vine Street in the residential area of Ishpeming. Police responded and Bjorne said that they developed a plan to move it toward the east to the former caving grounds where it wouldn't be near the main center of the population.
Unfortunately, he noted, people were already starting to gather at the scene.
Instead of going east, the animals turned south and headed to an area near Third Street and C.L. Phelps School. From there, the crowd continued to gather and take photos until the police were able to push it along snowmobile trail No. 8 and east using the department's SUV to inch them along at a slow speed.
"People were literally following me on foot behind the Tahoe," said Bjorne. "It was like it was some kind of parade."
The three moose then turned off of New York and Bigelow streets and headed northeast toward what Bjorne described as the general direction of Teal Lake. The last Bjorne saw of them, they were all together.
Two hours later, a call came in that two of the moose were up by U.S. 41 and the National Guard Armory. Police responded, attempted to move the moose out of the area, but the cow's agitation and the interruption by the public caused the two to be separated and the cow headed south of the railroad and toward the downtown area. It was there that the public began to follow the animal and pushed it right into the downtown area and past the high school at approximately 3:20 p.m.
"The curiosity of the public to see a live moose up close and personal was the main problem in controlling this situation," said Bjorne. "Throughout the entire afternoon, people would show up, oblivious to the barriers we had put up, would not listen to commands to stay away, so they could take pictures of the moose with their cameras and cell phones. The reality of the situation was we had a 1,000-plus pound cow moose trying to protect its young while there were entire families with little kids who treated the situation like it was a day at the zoo."
As the animal passed the school, Bjorne said several high school students chased after it, pushing it farther south to Bluff Street. The animal eventually turned around and headed to the Iron Ore Heritage Trail, nearly running over a woman in her back yard on Ready Street before turning and heading back toward Ishpeming.
"It was then that I gave the order to put the animal down," said Bjorne. "At that point it was exhausted, irritated and disorientated and didn't know where to go."
It was a decision, said Roell, that was supported by all of the agencies involved.
"It was a decision by the DNR and the chief of police," he said. "We weighed our options and what we could do. This was our only choice."
Roell said that using tranquilizers wasn't an option. Due to the size of the animal, the drug that would have had to been used and the state of heightened alertness it was it, any use of tranquilizers would have likely killed it.
"Using drugs is not an easy thing to do," said Roell. "Bad things can happen. By the time we had the opportunity to do it, she was in such a state that if we had put drugs in her she would have lost the ability to thermally regulate and would have overheated, gone into shock and died."
In Sept. 2007, Ishpeming and Negaunee police had an incident where two moose were near U.S. 41. Police attempted to control the situation and successfully did so until one of the moose crossed the highway and struck a van with a family inside, said Bjorne.
"That's exactly what we were trying to avoid," he said. "We couldn't have another accident, or destruction or people getting hurt. We had to do what we did, even though we would have rather had a different outcome."
The two calves, said Roell, were this year's newborns. They could potentially survive through the winter since they were weened from their mother, he said, but their chances of survival have been greatly diminished.
The whereabouts of the two young moose is unknown at this time."






This is pretty despicable...


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## Neal (Mar 20, 2001)

Any possiblity of getting the cape from that moose, for a donation to a Michigan nature center? Maybe something positive can come out of this.


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