A female moose stuck on the icy Chilkat River at 13 Mile Haines Highway was euthanized Sunday after a rescue attempt.
Cody Taylor said he spotted the moose on the ice just before dark on Jan. 13.
“It looked like it had fallen through the ice,” Taylor said, but he discovered the next morning that the moose was lying on top of the frozen river.
Taylor and his father, Coy Taylor, spread sand on the ice around the moose to help with traction, but the animal “just didn’t have the power to get back up.”
He called the Alaska State Troopers.
Trooper Trent Chwialkowski said the moose was about 300 to 400 yards out from the shore. It was facing away from the road with its front legs together and back legs splayed out to either side.
“She really didn’t have much fight,” Chwialkowski said. He used a chainsaw winch with a rope around the moose’s chest to easily slide it back to a snowbank.
After leaving the moose there for over an hour and a half, it still hadn’t moved.
“We gave her every opportunity to get up,” Chwialkowski said. “They’re so resilient, sometimes you never know.”
The trooper killed the moose.
It’s unknown how long the moose was stuck on the river. Chwialkowski said when the meat was salvaged, it was found that one of its hips was severely dislocated. The meat was donated to the Haines School District.
Although the moose’s injury was mostly likely from a fall or an attempt to get up, Chwialkowski said he wants to remind people that is required by state law to notify officials as soon as possible if wildlife is injured or killed with a vehicle.