I have been reading a book about wilderness and faith. The author is a minister and a lover of the outdoors. He has lived in some extremely remote areas of Canada and has had his fair share of close calls including at least 2 run ins with moose. Very hairy stuff that he describes.

In one situation he was walking/hiking with his pair of brother sister half lab, half coyote dogs when a moose exploded out from the other side of a meadow. The moose first went after the dogs but then set her sight on him. He ran into a small grove of poplar trees and the moose was very persistent and tried to bite him repeatedly as well as stomp him. This went on for some time as he kept dodging from tree to tree. Finally he noticed the moose kept looking back and he surmised the moose was concerned about a calf.

In another situation a dog belonging to someone else chased a bull into a campground where he had his small son with him. The moose grew tired of the dog and brandishing his horns drove it away only to set his sights on him and his kid who had climbed on top of the picnic table. The moose kept coming and he remembered that loggers often used a long pipe to put into the air to show they had the larger set of horns. He didn't have a pipe so he raised his arm into the air and the moose stopped and backed off. Interesting. Good book and I will eventually post a review of the book but considering pj's recent experience I thought a moose thread might be appropriate. His understanding of moose behavior is they generally don't stop until you are a pile of pulp. I was a little surprised to hear that they are apt to try and bite you and likely pull you out where they can stomp the crap out of you. Yikes! I bet some spray would be effective...........anybody hear of someone using spray on moose?

Good catch ST! I enjoyed reading those experiences immensely. Just because you don't hear about stuff doesn't mean it doesn't happen and with a bit more frequency than we might think. The first testimonial talks about being in Yellowstone and fishing slough creek. I'm thinking "hey, I fished slough creek".........the fishing in slough creek is freakin awesome after you walk just a bit further than most people are willing to go....that being about 5 miles..........20" plus cuts galore. What a hoot that place was.

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I'm a animal lover, had all kinds of critters when growing up.
Somewhere the idea that a pet was animal ( smart/loyal as they may be) to the idea that somehow their just like/equal to their masters, more like human friends than animal companions.

That's why you see people owning animals they have no business having ( chimps/ bears/ exotic cats/poisonous/constrictor snakes etc) because somehow they think their wild animal will somehow ignore it's DNA and act like they ( the human) want them too.

It's why you have people killed/mauled daily by so called friendly animals and their owners acting like they're the victims.

I still have a scar on my right wrist from my short lived UPS driver days.
I yell UPS, knock of enclosed porch outer screen door, package in hand.
Lady opens inner door with 2 huge dogs not that she could of controlled them anyway.
1 was a Lab/German Shepherd mix, the 2 was a full blooded Great Dane.
They're throwing all their weight at the screen door and while I'm holding the door with foot and right shoulder, the Great Dane sticks it's head thru open lite panel and latches onto my right wrist, puncturing it thru with it's canine teeth.
The pain was terrible but somehow I managed to pull free.

By that time sleeping husband has come and pulled dogs back inside.
Blood is pouring out of my wrist and it's swollen the size of a loaf of bread.
I still had package in hand but was close to being in shock.
Lady asked me IF I wanted to come inside and was off the "scratch" and she'd give me a band-aid.

I said call the police and drove myself over to the local hospital about a mile away in the stick shift baggage car, no power steering, one handed with the 4-way flashers going.
Ended up losing job, suing homeowners but all in all I barely broke even after it was all said and done.

At court deposition, she testified that her "kids" had never shown aggression to anyone else, I must of done something to make them act like guard dogs are supposed too.

Best part of those wild animal stories are when the owners get what they deserve for being so stupid they don't think their dogs will do what Nature has programmed it to do.