Save Pete!

For more than a year now, Irasburg, VT, resident David Lawrence has been nursing a moose back to health. Pete the Moose had just been attacked by dogs last year when Lawrence happened upon him on his property. Since then, Lawrence and Pete have had a bond that they didn't think would be broken...

That's when the State of Vermont came in. Pete lives on an elk farm and part of his diet comes from the food of the elk, from animal feed. Vermont State officials fear that there is a high risk of Pete contracting something "called chronic wasting disease", a brain ailment that affects deer-like animals and can be spread via animal feed as well as from animal to animal. Vermont would like to "remove" the deer and moose that inhabit this 600-acre elk farm. And by remove, we mean kill. Maybe.

Vermont is currently looking for alternative homes for the moose and deer currently living in the farm. Their concern over chronic wasting disease are legitimate, but so are the concerns of the people who don't want to see a healthy animal killed. “We’re human beings, and we’re farmers, and we can’t stand to see an animal die if we can save it,” says Lawrence.

If you'd like to voice your opinion, send Gov. Jim Douglas an email by clicking here.