A wild situation broke out in Saskatoon’s Evergreen neighbourhood on Thursday morning.
Witness Ashley Young shot video of the a moose indoors in the 600 block of Manek Road.
“I was driving my kids to school this morning … and my youngest yells out the window, ‘mom, there’s a moose.’ And of course, I’m like, ‘No, there’s not a moose. What are you talking about?’
“And he said, ‘I’m not kidding this time.’ Sure enough, I drove back around and I saw a moose in the window just kind of standing there.
“So I parked my car and came back around and got a little video and some pictures to get some evidence that, yeah, there’s a real live moose in the school.”
Steve Dobko, an inspector with the conservation officer service for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment, said the first call about the animal came in around 5:30 a.m.
“This is a case where, due to stress I believe, there is some pets and some dogs that caused the problem. And the moose started running and ended up in this area at the school where it obviously panicked and went through a glass window,” he said.
“A community entrance in Sylvia Fedoruk School, where people generally bring the kids to school and drop them off, and there’s a large room that has got glass windows. And as I understand it, there were children in the room when the moose went through.”
Dobko said, to his knowledge, no one was taken to hospital but some people may have some cuts and scrapes from the glass when the moose entered.
“Everybody safely got removed to a safer area in the school. The school responded very well and got the children into some classrooms at the back of the school so there was no further risk to the children,” Dobko said.
“Little bit more than just another day. It was a little excitement this morning for the staff here at the school and the children. I’m sure some of the children will be frightened by what they’ve seen.”
The Saskatoon Public Schools (SPS) division said the moose went into the community room between Sylvia Fedoruk and St. Nicholas Catholic schools.
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“It entered a before school program room operated by an external provider,” a SPS statement.
“Many people are shaken up by this.”
The inspector said, along with the Saskatoon Police Service, a plan was formulated and the animal was tranquillized.
“Our officers tranquillized the animal successfully and it’s now … been removed from the area,” Dobko said.
“The officers will assess the injuries. Obviously, this moose had substantial injuries from going through a glass window and sometimes we can successfully reverse the drug and the animal will survive.
“If the injuries are too life-threatening, then the animal has to be euthanized.”
The Saskatchewan government tweeted on Thursday afternoon that the work by conservation officers and police resulted in the moose being safely returned to the wild.
Young said this will be a funny story to tell in the future.
“It’s not very often that happens, especially in an instance like this … and I thought it was kind of neat. I mean, it’s good knowing now that nobody was hurt and they were able to get it out safely,” she said.
“But yeah, something you don’t see every day that’s for sure.
“I’ve heard of moose running around this area. We are on the outskirts of the city but I haven’t personally seen one myself, so it was kind of a neat to experience.”
— with files from Gabriela Panza-Beltrandi
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