Canadian man fired from job after saving baby moose from bear: 'I couldn't just leave her'

[Dave Cook]

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/