Vermont Says Man Must Give Up Pet Moose / Protesters go to bat for 'Pete the moose' - with pics

[Kadie]

David Lawrence talks to Pete the moose in Irasburg, Vt., Thursday, July 30, 2009. Pete was raised by 73-year-old Lawrence, who nursed the then-newborn moose back to health after Pete had been injured by dogs.
(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)


David Lawrence rubs the head of Pete the moose in Irasburg, Vt., Thursday, July 30, 2009. Pete was raised by 73-year-old Lawrence, who nursed the then-newborn moose back to health after Pete had been injured by dogs.
(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)


Vermont Says Man Must Give Up Pet Moose
Albany Man Trying To Save Moose's Life

Posted: 10:43 am EDT July 31, 2009Updated: 1:54 pm EDT July 31, 2009

IRASBURG, Vt. -- A Vermont man rescued a baby moose from dogs that had chewed up his hips, but it doesn't look like David Lawrence can protect the moose from state wildlife officials who say the now-grown bull must be killed.

Every day Lawrence makes the trip from Albany, Vt., to an Irasburg farm to visit Pete, a male moose whose affection he earned by nursing the bull back to health with a daily supply of food, reported WPTZ-TV in Plattsburgh, N.Y.

"He expects me to come through the gate every day. This area has become his home because he knows I'm going to come see him," Lawrence said.

snip...
The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department takes issue with Pete living on the farm, along with the other wild animals that are fenced in the farm.

more...
http://www.wftv.com/news/20236771/detail.html



Protesters go to bat for 'Pete the moose'


By Thatcher Moats Times Argus Staff - Published: July 31, 2009

WATERBURY – Waving signs and shouting slogans, about 20 protestors gathered in Waterbury on Thursday evening to show their support for Pete the Moose, an animal many people believe is under threat from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"These guys can't speak for themselves, so we need to speak for them," said Donna Underwood-Owens, a 64-year-old Essex resident.

snip...
Fish and Wildlife is negotiating with Nelson about what steps to take to rid the property of the native animals, and Nelson said that Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Wayne Laroche told him his department would kill the animals, including Pete, in the coming weeks.

Wildlife officials worry that the imported elk might spread diseases, particularly chronic wasting disease, to Vermont's native deer and moose population, and having the native animals living there is against state regulations.


more...
http://www.timesargus.com/article/20090731/NEWS02/907310356/1003/NEWS02

[GodlessBiker]

1. The government is going to kill the moose? Very nice.

[Larkspur]

4. Sarah Palin may get her first contract post-governorship

[FreakinDJ]

2. Put a saddle on him and ride him - FWD won't know the difference

[ColbertWatcher]

14. LOL! n/t

[Larkspur]

3. Wldlife services should allow the animals to live as long as they don't have

the diseases they are suspected of carrying. If they have the disease, they either need to be treated or put down, but to just put them down because they might have the disease feared is inhumane.

[northernlights]

12. I don't believe there is a test for wasting disease

other than examining brain tissue for lesions and evidence of prions. (Researchers are working on diagnostic tests for prion disease in human (Creutzfeld-Jacob / mad cow) but I don't think they're there yet.)

But I don't see how killing Pete will make a difference. Wasting disease has been spreading outward from Wisconsin since it started. It will reach Vermont sooner or later, whether or not they kill Pete.

[cali]

5. Grrr. Doug Nelson is a fucking pig, And yeah, I know him.

The wild animals he keeps on his farm are there for canned hunting. No, the state sure as shit shouldn't kill Pete, but I wish they'd shut down Doug's canned hunting enterprise.

[dugaresa]

8. do people protest his canned hunting preserve

because to me that is a bigger issue than even poor Pete.

[cali]

10. not so much. This is the Kingdom. As odd a place as you're likely to find

There are certainly a lot of people who don't think much of it, but who's gonna protest a rural farm/canned hunting preserve in the middle of nowhere? Lots of letters to the local papers though.

[pleah]

6. Save Pete the moose!

What the hell is wrong with these people at the Fish and Wildlife Dept.?

[dugaresa]

7. Did anyone read the article, the area is a hunting preserve

"Pete lives on property owned by Doug Nelson, where native white-tailed deer and moose live among imported elk on Nelson's elk farm and hunting preserve in Irasburg.

Fish and Wildlife is negotiating with Nelson about what steps to take to rid the property of the native animals, and Nelson said that Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Wayne Laroche told him his department would kill the animals, including Pete, in the coming weeks."


So Pete may have been bred for shooting anyways?

I don't get it. Why do they allow the hunting preserve and why aren't people protesting that? Perhaps they do but the article doesn't mention it.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. What do they mean 'imported'? He was found in Vermont and raised in Vermont!

[intheflow]

11. The elk are imported.

And they might carry chronic wasting disease which might be spread to native deer and moose populations. Ergo, they need to kill a native moose with no sign of chronic wasting disease. :crazy:

[ljm2002]

13. Yassir, that there is an un-authorized moose...

...sorry buddy, you saved him, you raised him, now we gotta kill him. It's just the way things work.

:wtf:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. Who's in charge of Fish and Wildlife? Boris and Natasha?

Sending good thoughts for Pete and David.