Connecticut firefighter helps rescue moose stuck in fence

BARKHAMSTED, Conn. — A Connecticut firefighter freed a moose trapped in a fence late Friday night, conservation authorities said.

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Tyler O’Neil, a lieutenant with the Riverton Volunteer Fire Company, said he was called to the Saville Dam in Barkhamsted just after 11 p.m. EDT, where he found the animal in distress, WVIT-TV reported.

First responders found the male moose, which initially was thought to be impaled, just “unable to get his rear legs over,” as “his belly kept him from going backwards,” according to a Facebook post by the Connecticut State Environmental Conservation Police.

Officials from the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection arrived at the scene and asked if there were any firefighters available who could use a cutting tool to free the moose, WVIT reported.

O’Neil stepped forward to help.

“So eventually DEEP arrived and the man asked if any of us were on the fire department if we could go get a cutting tool,” O’Neil told the television station. “I told him that I was, that I would call for somebody to get the rescue truck over there.

“I used the Jaws of Life to cut the fence and then the moose walked off into the woods.”

The moose appeared to be unharmed.

“After about 15 seconds or so, the moose slowly walked away which turned into a slow jog back to the edge of the reservoir disappearing into the darkness,” Connecticut State Environmental Conservation Police officials said in the Facebook post.

“This time of year male moose are actively trying to find mates to breed with thus sometimes finding themselves in awfully peculiar spots,” the agency said. “P.S.: We don’t know what happened to his other antler, we can only think maybe it got snapped off while fighting with another moose.”

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