Image Credit: FILE PHOTO
July 09, 2020 - 1:04 PM
The owners of a dog that contributed to the death of a cow moose have been found and fined.
Conservation officer Mike Stern says he was on scene to help the moose after it had been chased by a boxer in Naramata.
"It was basically harassed and chased but it was a smaller dog and a big moose. A dog like that wouldn’t be able to give a lot of injuries, however, it caused the cow moose to go down a 30-foot embankment and was tangled in the fence,” Stern says. “It sustained some injuries as in, obviously scratches and cuts but the main injury was it being stuck in the fence and having a wire wrapped around its neck and being in stress, shock, and exhaustion, that’s what ultimately killed it.”
Stern says he responded to the call on the night of July 7 to get the moose out of the fence. He says it was only there for about an hour to an hour and a half when he cut it loose.
“I cut it out of the fence, but it was so exhausted by then it just lied there. And basically overnight just died,” Stern says.
Yesterday, the Conservation Officer Service made a Facebook post about the incident. A few weeks earlier on June 16, a deer was chased by a dog, also in the Naramata area. The deer died as a result of its injuries, and the owners were fined $345. At the time of the post, the dog owners involved in the July 7 moose incident had not been found.
“I did follow up with the investigation of the moose and I did follow up with the owners of the dog and I issued a $345 ticket and the owners of that dog are going to take steps to mitigate any future encounters with wildlife,” Stern says.
The Conservation Officer Service reminds people that allowing dogs to chase wildlife is illegal. They recommend keeping dogs leashed or in an enclosure to avoid wildlife encounters.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Jenna Wheeler or call (250) 819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2020