Shawn Tuffnell says he punched a moose multiple times, gripping its neck, before shooting it to death to save his 70-year-old mother.
The 37-year-old Saskatchewan man says his fight with the animal took place in late January after hearing his mother, Angie Tuffnell, cry for help on her acreage near Bienfait, 220 kilometres southeast of Regina.
“(The moose) was just standing right over top of her, like the chest was directly above her,” Tuffnell recalled in an interview this week.
“I got out there really quick, otherwise he would have started stomping on her.”
Tuffnell said the Jan. 22 attack began when his mother went to the garage and saw the moose resting near a vent.
The animal stood up and chased her down, he said.
Tuffnell screamed, hoping it would run away, but the moose didn’t leave.
He did the next best thing he could think of — he punched it in the face.
“I hit him right in the lip and cut his lip. That still didn’t work,” Tuffnell said.
He grabbed a yellow shovel and started whacking.
“Then he finally came at me. He didn’t like that yellow shovel,” he said.
The moose lunged at Tuffnell as he retreated back into the house. The animal was in the entryway, and Tuffnell gripped the top of its neck while punching it in the face.
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“All I could think was trying to blind him so he can’t find her outside,” he said.
Tuffnell started yelling for his mother’s boyfriend to wake up and grab a gun.
The boyfriend, hearing the pleas, went to Tuffnell and handed him a rifle, he said.
Tuffnell let go of the moose and shot its eye.
He then shot its other eye, and proceeded to fire 15 or 16 more bullets, he said.
The moose fell to the ground. Tuffnell yelled at his mother to run into the garage.
“I reloaded three more times after that, just to make sure,” he said. “And I just kept shooting him in the same spot.”
Tuffnell drove his mother to hospital to stitch up her injured leg. Her calf was punctured when the moose lunged away from her and towards her son.
Tuffnell’s sister was working at the hospital when they showed up, he said.
“It was definitely a family affair. It was a bit of a shock for her,” he said. “(The wound) just went through the skin and tissue. The muscle was perfectly fine.”
Tuffnell called Saskatchewan’s wildlife hotline to report what happened. Conservation officers came to remove the animal and bring it to Saskatoon for testing.
The Canadian Wildlife Health Co-operative said in a statement that it examined the adult male moose and found it in very poor condition.
The animal had no remaining fat stores, and its stomachs were full of an abnormal, low-quality food resembling partially digested straw.
It said the moose died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head.
“At this time, the reason for the moose’s poor condition and aggressive behaviour is unknown, and the investigation is still ongoing,” the co-operative said. “Tests for rabies virus and chronic wasting disease were both negative.”
It said the moose was likely starving and seeking heat during a cold spell where temperatures plunged below -40 C.
Tuffnell said he recalled the moose being very skinny.
“I don’t know, being a younger moose, just learning how to survive,” he said.
Tuffnell, a hunter, said he’s been charged by a moose before on two separate occasions. In those cases, the animal either walked away or he shot his gun in the air to scare it off.
“But this guy was cornered, he was in survival mode,” he said.
His mother remains shaken by the attack.
“She’s not too keen on going outside in the dark anymore,” Tuffnell said.
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