Mark Skage with the rescued moose.
A Canadian man has claimed that he has been fired from his job after saving an adorable baby moose from being mauled by a black bear.
Mark Skage, a worker for AFD Petroleum from Fort Nelson, British Columbia, saved a newborn moose off the side of a busy highway, but as a result, his employer, AFD Petroleum Inc., dismissed him because he put himself and others in danger and might have distressed the moose.
Skage told CBC News that he was travelling north of Fort Nelson when he noticed the calf alone on the side of the road, with no mother in sight. After the calf almost got hit by a few cars, he decided to pull up to try to scare her off the side of the highway.
As he opened the car door, however, the calf trotted over and started trying to climb into his pickup truck.
"After the second time she tried to get in, I looked up across the road; I just happened to glance over there, and halfway across the ditch, maybe like 50 yards, there was a black bear standing there," Skage said.
"I just couldn't do it, in my heart. People can say all they want. I know that as outdoorsmen, we talk about predator control. Black bears are the No. 1 predator for those calves. So I just thought, 'Well, I can't take care of the predator, but I guess maybe I can try and help out this little calf.'"
However, this decision to pick up the animal in his vehicle was not taken lightly by his employers. The company, AFD Petroleum, had a problem with his wildlife rescue.
AFD said Skage's actions breached the company's protocols around interactions with wildlife.
"Instead of reporting the situation to a conservation officer and allowing the authorities to handle the rescue and relocation of the moose, the individual made the independent decision to transport an uninjured moose calf, a wild animal, in the front seat of his company vehicle for many hours," AFD president Dale Reimer said in an emailed statement.
"This not only put the employee and other road users at risk but also potentially caused distress and harm to the moose."
The company also disputed Skage's version of events, saying in a statement Sunday that two-way footage from the truck showed no evidence of a bear nearby and that Skage did not appear to have looked for the calf's mother.
The company also said that based on the video circulating on social media, it is not clear that Skage's version of the incident is undisputed. The company further stated that in the footage there is no evidence of a bear nearby and that Skage did not appear to have looked for the calf's mother.