A Canadian man says he was fired from his job after he stopped to help a moose calf escape from a bear attack.
Mark Skage, a former worker for the fuel supply company AFD Petroleum, Inc., said he was driving back from a job site when he saw the calf wandering on the side of the road.
When he pulled over and climbed out of his vehicle, the young moose attempted to climb into his truck. That’s when he noticed a bear just yards away from the “few days old” animal.
“I made a decision at the time that I couldn’t just leave her there. So I stuck her in the passenger side and drove to town to get her some help,” Skage said.
Breaking the Law
Skage has a background as an outdoorsman and knew what he was doing was against the law.
“It is against the law to pick up wild animals off the road or from out in nature anywhere. It is illegal to be in possession of wildlife and transport wildlife,” he acknowledged.
“I just couldn’t do it, in my heart. People can say all they want. I know as outdoorsmen, we talk about predator control. Black bears are the number one predator for those calves. So I just thought, ‘Well, I can’t take care of the predator, but I guess maybe I can try and help out this little calf,” he explained.
Skage called his supervisor and told a local conservation officer about the incident. He found a rehab center to take care of the calf and “let her grow up a bit before releasing her back into the wild.”
Not a Happy Ending
It would be great if this story had a happy ending. But a few days later, Skage found out that AFD Petroleum disapproved of how he handled the problem.
“AFD… figured I was in grievous conflict with their wildlife policies. (They decided) that letting me go was the best thing. So the lesson I learned was AFD is ok spilling fuel on the ground but not helping wildlife,” Skage concluded.
AFD Petroleum president Dale Reimer explained the company’s side of the story stating, “Instead of reporting the situation to a conservation officer and allowing the authorities to handle the rescue and relocation of the moose, the individual made the independent decision to transport an uninjured moose calf, a wild animal, in the front seat of his company vehicle for many hours.
“This not only puts the employee and other road users at risk but also potentially caused distress and harm to the moose.”
Bear Attack
Statistics show that black and grizzly bears, as well as wolves, are the most common calf predators in interior Alaska and Northern Canada. They are responsible for a large percentage of calf deaths and bear attack on moose.
“Black bears are the most important predator of moose calves in some areas of Alaska where grizzly bears are uncommon. In these areas, black bears killed about 40% of all moose calves that were born. Most predation was by adult males,” reports the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.