While driving past a pair of dumpsters, James West noticed something peculiar.
According to a Facebook post by James, he saw a moose chewing on what seemed to be a trash bag. James stopped his car to take a closer look, but he still couldn’t see what the moose had in its mouth.
The moose was stumbling, chewing vigorously, and frothing at the mouth.
“I made my way closer to investigate,” James said and continued:
“The closer I got, I could tell his breathing wasn’t right and he was chewing profusely … It was at that time my heart sunk into my stomach.”
James suddenly became aware of the dire situation as he noticed a plastic garbage bag obstructing the moose’s throat. The moose struggled for its life, breathing in a manner that was far from normal.
Approaching an injured moose was, of course, very risky. Yet James felt compelled to act, sensing there was no other choice. He thought about calling animal control, but there really was no time for that.
With the situation growing increasingly urgent, James made the decision to take matters into his own hands. He approached the large animal cautiously. Moose generally aren’t aggressive toward humans, but they can become aggressive if provoked or frightened.
“The speed and power of a moose is unforgiving. It would only take one kick to hospitalize someone, if not kill them,” James said while speaking to The Dodo.
“[But] after about 10 minutes of talking to him and slowly getting closer, he definitely understood I was not there to hurt him.”
Eventually, he managed to get close enough to dislodge the long piece of plastic. To James’ surprise, removing the plastic proved to be pretty easy. And what a difference it made for the moose afterward!
“He began to get to what I could only describe as excited and playful,” West said. “There was actually a point in time I was worried he was going to try to play with me and I’d get hurt unintentionally, like a big, clumsy puppy.”
