• Canadian man fired from job after saving baby moose from bear: 'I could

    From Dave Cook@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jul 17 05:38:48 2023
    XPost: sci.geo.petroleum, can.politics, talk.politics.guns
    XPost: sac.politics

    A Canadian man claims he was fired from his job at a fuel supplier when he helped rescue a desperate moose calf from a potential black bear attack.

    Mark Skage, who worked for AFD Petroleum Inc., was driving back from a job
    site when he saw the abandoned moose wandering on the side of the road in British Columbia, Canada on June 6.

    As he pulled over and hopped out of his vehicle, the calf attempted to
    climb into his truck as Skage noticed a bear stalking the “few day old”
    animal.

    “There was a black bear 50 yards away from her just waiting,” Skage said
    in a Facebook post.

    “I made a decision at the time after she kept (trying) to climb into the
    work truck that I couldn’t just leave her there. So I stuck her in the passenger side and drove to town to get her some help,” Skage added.

    Skage’s decision to bring the calf into his truck comes from his
    background as an outdoorsman and he knew that doing so was against the
    law.

    “I just couldn’t do it, in my heart. People can say all they want. I know
    as outdoorsmen, we talk about predator control. … Black bears are the
    number one predator for those calves. So I just thought, ‘Well, I can’t
    take care of the predator, but I guess maybe I can try and help out this
    little calf,'” Skage told CBC News.

    “It is against the law to pick up wild animals off the road or from out in nature, anywhere. It is illegal to be in possession of wildlife and
    transport wildlife,” he told the outlet.

    With the calf riding shotgun in his truck, Skage called his supervisor and
    the local Conservation Officer about his predicament before he named the
    moose Misty and found a rehab center to look after her until she was ready
    to be released.

    “A few days later Misty (that’s what I called her) got a ride to a rehab
    center a little farther south where they will let her grow up a bit before releasing her back into the wild,” his post read.

    Skage thought everything would be over but his company AFD Petroleum had a problem with his wildlife rescue.

    “All is well right? NOPE. AFD felt different and figured I was in grievous conflict with their wildlife policies. (they had never taken the time to
    know my background),” he said.

    Both the black and grizzly bear, along with wolves, are large predators of moose calves in Interior Alaska and Northern Canada and make up a large
    portion of calf deaths.

    “Black bears have been found to be the most important predator of moose
    calves in some areas of Alaska where grizzly bears are uncommon. In these areas, black bears killed about 40% of all moose calves that were born.
    Most predation was by adult males,” according to the Alaska Department of
    Fish and Game.

    “Anyway to wrap up they did decide given all their options that letting me
    go was the best thing. So the lesson I learned was AFD is ok spilling fuel
    on the ground but not helping wildlife,” Skage concluded.

    The AFD condemned Skage’s rescue, saying he should’ve called the
    conservation officer and allowed trained wildlife officials to handle
    relocate Misty.

    “Instead of reporting the situation to a conservation officer and allowing
    the authorities to handle the rescue and relocation of the moose, the individual made the independent decision to transport an uninjured moose
    calf, a wild animal, in the front seat of his company vehicle for many
    hours,” said AFD Petroleum president Dale Reimer according to CBC.

    “This not only put the employee and other road users at risk but also potentially caused distress and harm to the moose.”

    https://nypost.com/2023/07/16/canadian-man-mark-skage-fired-for-saving- moose-calf-from-black-bear/

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)