Yesterday, we reported on coyotes shopping for mattresses in Missouri. Today, it's moose going house hunting in suburban Massachusetts. The Animal Uprising™ is getting pretty cocky.
NORTHAMPTON – Environmental police tranquilized a young moose Wednesday morning that had wandered into a North Elm Street backyard the night before and couldn't find its way out.
Tony Silva, of 169 North Elm Street, said the moose managed to wander through a 3-foot opening in the wooden fence that surrounds his yard. The trapped animal was spotted late Tuesday night by a neighbor, said Silva. The residents began calling authorities at 7 a.m. the next morning, when they realized the moose had not wandered back out, he said.
Northampton city police were called to 169 North Elm at roughly 8:30 a.m., at which point a team of environmental police and wildlife management experts had already put a dart in the animal's back. The sedated moose, blindfolded and with soft foam in its ears to keep it calm, was then loaded into a truck.
"Environmental Police?" Oy. So, the animal overlords are obviously pretty confident that they will conquer humanity in the near future. But I sure wouldn't want a moose for a neighbor. They throw wild parties.
I had a huge Alaskan fellow who had come down the Highline visit the farm one summer. He was over seven feet at the shoulder! He bedded down across the creek for a few days, driving my hound nuts, then ambled through our yard, stopped to say hi, then up the hill, where he stuck his head in the the open front door of the house I was building and took a look. Luckily, he continued on his way! [It wasn't hunting season, and you can't poach that quantity of meat in a small town and get away with it.]