Moose on a Wire
Netlore Archive: Emailed image shows an unfortunate moose accidentally strung up on power cables by a utility crew near Fairbanks, Alaska
Description: Emailed image
Circulating since: November 2006
Status: Authentic
Analysis: See below
Email example contributed by Marilyn H., 28 November 2006:
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Subject: Moose Incident Pogo Moose Incident - Fairbanks, Alaska "They were laying new power cables which were strung on the ground for miles. The moose are rutting right now and very agitated. He was thrashing around and got his antlers stuck in the cables. When the men (miles away) began pulling the lines up with their big equipment, the moose went up with them. They noticed excess tension in the lines and went searching for the problem. He was still alive when they lowered him. to the ground. He was a huge 60 inch bull and slightly peeved !"
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Comments: True. On October 5, 2004, electric workers were stringing power cable along a stretch of Pogo Mine Road 80 miles
southeast of Fairbanks when, unbeknownst to them, a 1,200-pound bull moose became entangled in the cable and was hoisted 50 feet off the
ground when the line was winched to the top of the utility poles.
This being real life and not an episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle, the incident probably sounds more amusing than it actually was. The moose was still alive when the workers found it, photographed it, and finally lowered it to the ground, but their efforts to disentangle it were thwarted by the critter's own panicked attempts to flee. In the end, after consulting with the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, power company officials decided to put the moose out of its misery. The meat, we're told, was salvaged and donated to a local resident.
Moose Caught in Power Lines
Juneau Empire (free reg. required), 18 October 2004Wired Moose
Daily News-Miner (Fairbanks), 17 October 2004Deer on a Pole
Netlore Archive, 29 Octobre 2003
Last updated: 02/19/07
