Two shotgun blasts cracked through the air in Campbell Wednesday night as an RCMP officer put down a moose injured in a collision with a vehicle on Boudreau Road.
The incident occurred at approximately 8:30 p.m. after a vehicle travelling eastbound on Boudreau Road, east of Campbell Road, collided with the animal.
Onlookers from several vehicles, as well as patrons of the Foxx Den, watched from the edge of the street as an officer emerged from his vehicle carrying a shotgun.
The moose, lying on the side of the road, moving only its head, turned to watch as the officer took careful aim from five feet away and fired. The moose flailed its limbs after the first shot, then ceased moving altogether after the second.
“Got the whole thing,” said one bar patron, one of many who used cellphones to photograph or film the incident.
St. Albert Const. Janice Schoepp said officers responded to the incident and found the animal badly injured and made the decision to put it down.
“It was the humane thing to do.”
Schoepp said that is the standard procedure for RCMP officers who encounter that type of situation, but local officers rarely see such large wildlife inside the city.
She said in more rural locations it is more common for officers to encounter injured wildlife and have to euthanize them.
