What a Morning!
Anchorage, Alaska
February 1, 2002

Boy, what a morning!!!  I got up at 4:30 am when I heard my dogs barking outside.  There was a two year old moose in the middle of the yard, about 10 feet from the door.  It attacked my dogs several times, trying to stomp on them.  They couldn't get away to defend themselves because they're chained up.  I couldn't really do much from where I stood, especially since the moose weighed a good 800 pounds.  It turned and charged me at least twice and I ducked back inside the arctic entry.  I wasn't sure if it would try to come after me inside, especially with the storm door being glass, so I came all the way inside my woodshop.

My wife called the police and told them that I was going to shoot it and of course the dispatcher got all upset about it telling Carol that I could not shoot the moose.  When she told me that, I said, in a very loud voice "It's what's known as 'defense of life and property' I'm fully within my rights under Alaska State law and that moose has attacked both me and my dogs.  It's going to die.  The police department responded three officers.  The first to arrive was a friend of mine and his first comments was ... "It figures it was you."  Then he said, "Oh, the dispatcher was pretty upset too."  (Damn bunny hugger!).

The first thing we tried was shooting it with what are called "bean bag" rounds from his shotgun (they're considered a non-lethal round -- they just hurt and leave a big bruise).  The damn moose attacked my dogs again!  The next thing was going to be to shoot the moose with lethal ammunition.  They called a biologist from the Department of Fish and Game who deals with problem moose like this one and he came over.  Luckily he lives a couple of blocks from us.

The second thing we tried was using oleocapsacin (OC) or pepper spray on the moose.  I went down to the basement door, opened it and emptied a can of it on the moose.  Unfortunately it was the type used against human beings so it is made for up-close and personal action.  It only sprays out about six feet.  The result was a cloud of pepper spray in the yard that drifted over in the direction of the two cops and my son.  By the time I got back upstairs, the cloud reached us and we were all coughing and sneezing.  The moose, well the moose just stood there with her hair up looking for something else to stomp on.

We tried throwing some highway flares out into the yard to scare the moose.  That only made everything glow a really eerie shade of flickering red.  But, the moose did not go past the flares to get to the dogs again.

Finally the biologist went down the stairs, climbed on top of one of the dog houses to get a better downward angle.  The moose decided to make a charge at him and  POW!  That fast, we had a dead moose in the backyard.  About that time the dogs went nuts because we went down to check them and they figured they were safe.  You could tell that the dogs were relieved that the threat had been neutralized. 

The city has a program where moose that are killed on the highway, or in cases like this one, are donated to various charities.  The police called one and within and hour three men were here to get the thing.  I was amazed how fast they cut it up and carted it away.  Within 30 minutes all that was left in the yard is an area of bloody snow. 

When they were finished, one of them (I assume the guy in charge) turned to me and asked if I would like a shoulder.  I asked if that was legal and he said yes.  He said "It's our meat and we can donate it to whoever we want."  So, I spent the morning butchering a moose shoulder.  We've now got about 6 pounds of stew meat and 8 really nice roasts in the freezer.

Oh, and the dogs are very happily chewing away on some large leg bones as they recover from their bruises.  Luckily it looks like the only serious wound is to one who was hit in the head and got a small cut above her eye.  I'll be watching all of them closely to make sure that there are no underlying deep tissue wounds or bruises.

So, with that ... how was your morning?  I could sure use a beer, and it's only 10:00!

	We tried using highway flares trying to scare the moose into the other yard away from the dogs.  All they did was to light everything up in an eerie red glow.  The dogs are along the left side of the picture and one is in his house on the right corner of the shed.
	Finally, when nothing else was working, Rick Sinnott of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, moved over to the side and stood on a dog house to get a good downward angle. (His shotgun is visible on the right side of the picture).  The tricky part was dealing with the dog in the house next to the shed, and the cabin immediately behind our yard.
	One shot from a 12 gauge shotgun and it was all over.  This only came after we tried yelling at it, shot it with three non-lethal "bean bag" rounds, and threw highway flares at it.  The moose was not about to leave the yard and was persisting in attacking the dogs.  We think this moose has been in the yard several times before and has caused problems then too.  This time it just went too far.  You can see how close the dogs were to this whole fiasco!
	A local charity was called (as it turned out, they were from one of the local 'traditional' Native villages.  They showed up within an hour and had the moose field dressed in less than 30 minutes!  These guys were good!   It was obvious they'd done this before.  The leader of the group offered us one of the front shoulders.  When I asked if that was legal, he said "It's our meat and we can give it out as we see fit."  So, with that, they gave us a nice shoulder.
	Finally, what happens when a moose gets in your yard and starts attacking your dog team?  You make moose stew and moose roast out of it!  Oh, and the dogs got some nice big leg bones to chew on.

Now all we have to deal with is the big blood spot in the snow in the back yard and deciding if we're going to have stew or roast for dinner!