Originally Posted by
AT Traveler
Well, let me try to explain and perhaps its not as asinine a statement as one that claims the animal wasn't harmed, as you do not know that as fact.
So, why do some people find it cruel to run down a moose crossing an open body of water with a motor boat and then leaping on its back and terrorizing the moose. Start from the top...
The moose has to cross the lake for whatever reason a moose has to cross a large open body of water. It sets out fine and reaches a third or more across the water and hears a noise. Its the boat full of boys, but the moose doesn't know its a bunch of boys looking to terrorize it, it hasn't a clue what it is, it only knowns its caught in open water. Not understanding what the noise is and starts elevating its stress level, it starts to swim faster than it normally would to reach shore. The boat approaches the moose from the back, the moose stress continues to elevate and swims faster to get away from this "thing".
Then duckweed Jim jumps on its back. The moose doesn't know its a beer filled boy and presumes its a predator and tries to shake it off while swimming faster. The moose, now in a panic is in very high stress, its snout starts going in and out of the water, interrupting its breathing as the boy is hanging on to its head acting the fool. At some point in this process the moose starts to inhale water, which causes it further panic and expend more energy to get away. The boy then clambers off, the boat picks him up. The moose, free of the weight but now nearly exhausted has half a lake to swim across. The boat, returns for another look at the moose, causing it to swim faster. The moose now moves into a higher state of panic because it knows the predator is returning an it has no defenses. The adrenaline being repeatedly surged through the moose's body now starts to damage internal organs, similar to what dogs chasing it will do on land.
The boat with the clueless boys then moves on, but the damage may be done. If nothing else, the moose has suffered a very high stress level with associated panic. So the questions are, did the moose make it across the lake or did it drown via panic fed exhaustion? Did it reach land, but the damage from the escape prove to be too much stress on the animals lungs, heart, and/or other organs to live longer than a few hours? Did the moose succumb to predation on leaving the lake due to its lack of strength from its encounter with the boys? Unfortunately, we cannot answer any of those questions with facts, opinions don't count here. Moose, like any other animal will die with high physical stress of that sort, though it may take several hours.
I made the comment not to your opinion, or perhaps lack of knowledge, to but the dismissal of why so many took a very hard stand against the event. Having seen animals die from this type of thing before, be it from people, dogs, or aircraft, its pretty clear what the boy did was wrong. I'm sorry you don't see that.
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