A Guy Saves A Baby Moose And Gets Fired

A Canadian man says he was fired for rescuing a baby moose he found on a road, but has no regrets saving “Misty” from what he believes would have been certain death. Mark Skage tells the CBC who saw the moose nearly being hit by cars on the highway north of Fort Nelson, British Columbia. He says he pulled over to try to scare it off the road, and after he tried to get into his vehicle, he saw a black bear about 50 yards away. Skage says that after waiting for the calf’s mother to show up, he decided to take her to safety. “She came to me, and I decided that she would answer the call,” he says, for global news. He says the calf was only a few days old and the bear seemed to be stalking it.

Skage says he called the BC Conservation Officers Service and the moose is now in a wildlife rehabilitation center. He says he was fired from his job as a tank technician at AFD Petroleum Inc. for violating wildlife protocols. “Rather than report the situation…and allow authorities to handle the rescue and relocation of the moose, the individual made an independent decision to transport an uninjured moose calf, a wild animal, in the front seat of the vehicle his company for many hours,” AFD President Dale Reimer said in a statement. “This not only put the employee and other road users at risk, but also caused distress and damage to the moose.”

The company says video from the truck shows no sign of a bear and that Skage doesn’t appear to have searched for the cub’s mother. Skage says that he knows all about wildlife protocols, having helped several companies create them. He says that he is aware that he broke the law by transporting wild animals, but is willing to pay any fine and still believes that he did the right thing, the National mail reports. He says he was relieved that there was room for the moose at a wildlife center. “Her and I bonded on the drive home. I mean, geez, we spent like five and a half hours in the van together.” (Read more Canada stories.)