AKJ attack; no injuries, but the terrorist did take out a helicopter

Both lose when cow moose collides with helicopter
EUTHANIZED: Darted animal from the Gustavus herd bumps rear rotor of a tagging aircraft.
A routine flight to tag a cow moose took a bizarre turn this weekend when the tranquilized animal charged the tail section of a hovering helicopter, collided with the rear rotor and brought down the aircraft.

Neither the pilot nor biologist Kevin White, who was aboard the helicopter, was injured. But Larsen said the moose was hurt badly enough -- its snout collided with the chopper's tail rotor -- that it had to be put down by White. Biologists typically use a lethal injection to euthanize moose, Larsen said.

"It was really beyond help at that point," Larsen said. "When it hit its nose, it basically chopped off the end of its nose. It was really severely injured."

This would be equivelant to Barbara Streisand getting her nose lopped off. It might not seem that serious, but to a moose, or Barbara, that's a pretty huge chunk of anatomy that they're losing.

It sounds like they're having a bit of a moose over-population problem in this area.

Larsen said it's sometimes been tough to convince the people of Gustavus that there's a good reason to kill a cow moose. The task of moose population control "is sort of a delicate balancing act and certainly the public plays into that balancing act," he said.

Hmmmm. These people need the moose herds thinned out. I just posted a story on how Santa Monica CA needs their squirrel population thinned out. I just had a brainstorm for a new company:

Rocky and Bullwinkle Extermination Services

Gino, are you with me on this one. We may not make a fortune doing the actual extermination; but once we've signed the reality show deal with Discovery Channel, that's when the money will start to roll in. We'll have to affect some over the top accents so that people will be able to identify us immediately. We'll need some catch-phrase, like "Crikey, that's one big gator." How about: "Momma mia, that's a one a big a moosa."

Let's get going on that. I'll keep everyone up to date.