Moose rescued by bylaw officers

In a community surrounded by forest, miles of bush roads, and waterways, a moose can still attract a lot of attention.
When a young moose wandered onto the Abitibi-Consolidated mill property near the car wash last week, a number of vehicles, passers-by, and mill employees surrounded the compound to watch the bewildered animal.
“I thought there was going to be an accident,” noted one O.P.P. constable as she directed traffic around the mill yard.
Parked cars lined the side of the road, transport trucks stopped in the middle of the road, and one resident even hopped out of his pickup to try a few moose calls.
“Aww, you’re too close to her,” he said as the moose ignored his calls and headed to the opposite side of the yard.
The moose, first spotted around 8 a.m. last Thursday, appeared to be fairly nervous as it paced the enclosure. And as the crowd of on-lookers grew, it decided to hide behind the car wash with its rear and head poking out from each end.
Around 11 a.m., town bylaw officers and Nor-West Animal Clinic vet Chris Cannon tranquilized the moose with a dart gun.
After it stumbled to the ground, a sheet was placed over the moose’s head and several men rolled it into the bucket of a front end loader before it was taken back into the safety of the bush.
“It was removed and placed north of town and made a full recovery. I was there when it was up,” said bylaw officer Arlene “Plum” Byrnes.
The moose had entered through a gap at one end of the enclosure and couldn’t find its way out. Once the traffic started to pass by, mill security blocked off the opening for the animal’s safety.
Bylaw officers occasionally are called to remove nuisance bears or skunks but rarely get a call to remove a moose.
“That was the first Christmas moose,” noted Byrnes.