“It was about three or four miles from my home, so I thought it wouldn’t be much of a job to go over there and try and get him out. He was buried right up to his head. He was fighting, and fighting, and fighting just to keep his head out of the mud.” –Maurice Valliere
Feel good story out of Northern Ontario where prospectors Maurice Valliere and Pat Greba learned from a friend on August 25th that a bull moose was stuck up to its neck in a deep mud hole in the Canadian wilderness not far from where they lived in the town of Timmins.
The CBC reports the before attempting the rescue the men tried to contact officials for advice on how to pull him out but couldn’t reach the authorities. Understanding the urgency of the situation, they decided to save the moose with what they had, a large Argo ATV and a tow strap:
“I was hoping to try to go around his stomach [with a heavy strap] and try and get him out, but he was in too deep. There’s no way I could have jumped in there, so the only option I had was to go around his horns.”
After they pulled the exhausted moose out the mud hole he laid on its side for spell before regaining its strength, popping up and running away into the forest. Hats off to these Good Samaritan Canucks who stepped in to help the distressed moose. Well done!
images from Bill Desloges Facebook
