Two retired prospectors are being hailed as heroes, after they put their lives on the line to save a hopeless moose from certain death. Days ago, Maurice Valliere and Pat Greba, both 70-year-old rescued a helpless moose that got itself trapped in a swamp, in the forests of Timmins, Ontario.
Valliere was at his place, when a friend of him, aged 82, called him to let him know he came upon the moose deep in the woods. The man tried to help the poor animal all by himself, but unsuccessfully, though. Initially, Valliere tried to reach the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry by phone, but unfortunately no one has taken his call. So, really concerned, the brave man has taken the matters into his own hands, called Greba, and together they rushed to save the distressed animal.
Aware that every moment could have been critical for the moose, the two men hurried to find the trapped animal. They just jump on an ATV and headed to where their friend guided them. However, it took nearly two hours until they finally spotted it!
“I was at home and I got a call from a buddy saying he’s in the bush taking soil samples and he’s found a moose 20 feet from the road,” Valliere told blogTO. “When I got to the trail I couldn’t see anything,” says Valliere. “Then I looked to the side and all I saw was a head. I said ‘Holy Jesus, this thing is really stuck! He’s not stuck, he’s buried!'”
The men immediately noticed, things were more than complicated for the confused moose, who was barely keeping his head afloat. So they initially tried to calm him down and then they’ve tried to pull him out.
“I felt so sorry for him. His mouth was full of mud and his eyes were full of mud,” the man explained.”He started to fight back, tried to reach me with his legs, but couldn’t reach high enough.”
Helped by Valliere’s dog – a white labrador – the stranded animals eventually calmed down, so the determined men were able to finally free him!
“The dog just went up to the moose and laid there and put his head down, and the moose looked at the dog and was like ‘oh, okay,'” Valliere explained. “He must have realized we were there to help him, or he was just exhausted, but he calmed right down.”
Greba found the time to grab some snaps of the dramatic rescue, images later shared on Facebook by another friend of them, Bill Desloges. The photos show just how difficult it must have been for both the poor animal and for the two brave men to rescue him. In the end, the two heroes declared themselves so happy to help the poor moose.
“I felt good that we got him out, ’cause I felt so sorry for him. He was struggling and struggling and just couldn’t do it,” the brave men said! However, the men said there were they this time, but anyone from Timmins would have helped the moose, and they will certainly help any other animal that finds itself in need. “We didn’t think it was that much of a big deal because everyone in Timmins would have probably went out and helped,” Valliere said. “We all love our animals here.”