BIENFAIT — Shawn Tuffnell believes quick and necessary reactions helped save his mother’s life after a confrontation with a moose.
The Stoughton man was staying at his mother Angie’s home just outside of Bienfait on Jan. 22. Tuffnell recalls that his mother had gone outside to start his vehicle at about 6 a.m., and then he heard her scream.
“I didn’t know what she was saying; I just noticed the tone wasn’t good,” Tuffnell said in an interview with SaskToday. “I went running outside, and there was a moose standing … overtop of her. I started screaming at the moose, and it just turned and faced me, and pinned its ears back.”
He started punching the animal in the face, which he admits wasn’t a very good idea because the moose has a longer reach than him. The moose swung back and just missed Tuffnell, so he said he grabbed a shovel, swiped at the moose and struck it a couple of times. The moose came at him, so Tuffnell fell back into the house.
“He tripped over a compost bucket, and then got up, and he came right in the house,” said Tuffnell. “And then he was trying to hit me in the house, but he couldn’t get a good swing on me, being in the doorframe.”
Tuffnell said he put the moose in a headlock and had the side of the animal’s face against Tuffnell’s stomach, preventing the animal from biting him or taking a swing at him.
“He ripped out of my hands, and he turned, he pinned his ears back, he went to go back at my mom again, so I had to run two or three steps outside, grabbed him by the face,” said Tuffnell. “I had him by the nostrils and the lips, and pulled him back in the house.”
Tuffnell’s mother’s boyfriend grabbed a rifle and Tuffnell shot the moose in the eyes to blind the animal, then shot it several more times until it dropped. He then fired a couple more rounds to ensure the moose was dead and would not suffer. Angie's boyfriend also helped by reloading the rifle.
Tuffnell believes the entire incident lasted about three minutes. Once it was over, mother and son went to the hospital for treatment.
Tuffnell said his mother is sore and had to keep her leg elevated because it continued to swell. She suffered bruised ribs, and he suspects he sustained one or two broken ribs, but did not have it checked.
“She’s a little bit scared, not too keen on going outside in the dark,” said Tuffnell.
He said he has never been in a situation where he had to fight a moose, but added he has been charged by them twice before while hunting deer.
“You come up on them while they’re sleeping in the bush, and you’re in thicker brush, and they get up and they’ll charge you, but I was in pretty thick trees, so they couldn’t get at me really bad.”
In this instance, Tuffnell suspects the moose was likely starving and laying against the dryer vent to keep warm. The dryer had not been running for a couple of days, but it was still generating warmth at a time when it was –48 C with the windchill. The property’s yard light had also burned out earlier in the week.
Tuffnell believes he saved his mother’s life. If he had not intervened, he believes the moose would have started stomping on her, which is why he continued punching and striking the animal.
He added conservation officers understand why he took those measures. The moose did not test positive for rabies and likely did not have chronic wasting disease, he said; it was just hungry and emaciated.
In an email to SaskToday, the Ministry of Community Safety said conservation officers transported the moose to the Canadian Wildlife Health Co-operative (CWHC) i in Saskatoon on Jan. 23 for a necropsy.
The ministry encourages people who encounter wildlife to remain calm, keep their distance, make noise and never approach or feed the animal. Most animals will move on naturally.
“Moose are large and unpredictable, so it is important to keep your distance and call the authorities if you encounter one in an urban area. Contact your local conservation officer, call the Turn in Poachers and Polluters (TIPP) line at 1-800-667-7561, or dial 911,” the ministry said.
