‘Scariest moment of my life’: Baby B.C. moose rescued after getting trapped in wire fence – BC News

A baby moose was able to walk free after a group of people rescued it from a wire fence near Hazelton.

Cecilia Wilson, her husband Darryl, her brother and father were driving along Kispiox Valley Road around 4pm on January 25 when they spotted the young animal on the left side of the road.

“It got tangled up on the legs,” says Wilson. “The barbed wire was around the hind legs.”

The group noticed a moose nearby, which they suspected was its mother.

As her family approached the moose, Wilson attempted to flag down someone passing to help. They brought wire cutters and Wilson’s man had a chainsaw file in the truck.

“He grabbed that and the gloves and tried to help him,” she says.

Darryl managed to cut through the fence and unwrap the wire from the animal’s legs, but the baby moose didn’t stand up.

In a video recorded by Wilson, you can hear her say “we don’t know how long it’s been out” and “have to be careful”.

Wilson looked out for the mother moose trying to get the baby to stand up. In the video you can see the moose moving its hind legs.

After a few minutes it finally got up.

“Come on moose, get up moose! Let’s go moose! Yeah,” yells Wilson. “Wohoo! Bye Moose!”

The animal sauntered away from the group as they cheered.

“It was the funniest and scariest moment of my life,” says Wilson.

After the baby moose was freed, Wilson says that the mother moose appeared to charge at them. She quickly got back in the truck.

Moose rescued in interior BC

Earlier this week, a couple spotted a moose tangled in a fence and lying on its side. Angie Hillmer and Kirk Barharn were driving inland along Princeton Summerland Road and got out of their vehicle to help the moose.

“It looked at me with a big red eye,” Barharn recalls. “I was not afraid. I figured I had to help that animal.”

He managed to get the first hoof out easily; however, the second proved to be more challenging.

“I was stressing. I actually had to take a little break and catch my breath. It was very tight and I basically had to pull a lot on the wire to unhook it,” says Barharn.

In the video, the moose gives a light kick and stands up when freed.

“He just got up and trotted into the woods. It looked good,” he says. “It didn’t look like his legs were damaged.”

BC Conservation Officer Brandon Beck is grateful that people are willing to help the animals, but suggests calling the 24/7 RAPP hotline at 1-877-952-7277.

“It might be better to call us just because we have all the devices available,” he says.

Moose get stuck in a fence when hunted, he adds. And while it does happen, it’s not very common, he says.