Three recent Colorado moose attacks all involved people with their dogs
The incidents range from Fairplay on Friday, May 30, to Grand Lake on Saturday, May 31, and one in Steamboat Springs on Sunday, June 1, where a woman was actually flow to a hospital because of her injuries.
In all three incidents, the people attacked had dogs with them, and in the Fairplay attack the dogs were not on a leash.
CPW said without question unleashed dogs are by far the most prevalent instigation for moose attacks in Colorado.
"If you have your animal off leash, you're not only potentially adding that danger and injury to your animal, but also to yourself," Rachael Gonzales, a spokesperson for CPW. "So a lot of times your dogs, their instinct, they're going to run back towards their human, which then that turns that animal, in this case, a moose, back towards you as well."
In Friday's incident in Park County, two women walking with their dogs were trampled by a moose. They escaped by climbing onto a roof and used a fire extinguisher to haze the moose away. CPW said no serious injuries were reported.
Saturday was a more serious attack in Grand County. A cow moose charged a couple and knocked a woman to the ground, who then crawled under a small storage area next to their house, according to CPW. Her partner shot and killed the moose in self defense. A calf was later euthanized by CPW due to concerns about its ability to survive in the wild without its mother, and inability to be rehabilitated.
Sunday brought yet another attack in Routt County, where a woman walking leashed dogs was seriously injured by a cow moose. A man who was paddleboarding close to the attack in River Creek Park stopped to help and was also kicked. The park, located in Steamboat Springs, is now closed through Wednesday as CPW assesses the area.
"In that case, she had her dogs on a leash," Gonzales said. "Unfortunately, she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."
The best advice? Keep dogs on a leash and give moose plenty of space. Gonzales said you can watch for a few signs a moose is getting irritated, and more likely to charge.
"Things like licking its lips, its ears are pinned back ... the little heckles and hairs on its back are going to be sticking up. It may be pacing back and forth," Gonzales explained. "Keep an eye on those signs, because if you start to see that, that's your signal that that moose is uncomfortable for whatever reason."
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