UPDATE: COVERUP, BUT NOT BY BERRY?

Today's Burlington Free Press carries updated details about the coverup. It appears that, as my friend Nanuq suggested in a comment, that F&W Commissioner Patrick Berry may have been a victim of the coverup, rather than a perpetrator. 

Nelson didn't return a call seeking comment Saturday. But his son, Richard Nelson, told WCAX-TV that the family misled the state.

“The blame goes to us,” he said. “We're the ones that didn't say Pete died.”

At this point, it seems clear that the true issue is, as it has been from the beginning, that the park operators should never have been allowed to domesticate this wild animal. As Berry says in the print edition of the Free Press:

“This is the prime example of why wildlife should be kept wild. . . .  When you try to domesticate wild animals you have to undertake these sorts of procedure, and you put their lives at risk.”

If you read the comments on places like Facebook you see all kinds of comments from people about state plans to “murder” the moose, In fact, the reason this moose required the hoof operation that led to its death was its domestication, and the domestic diet it was fed. Do you think it might be time to dispense with the romanticization of the occasional wild animal that, usually to its misfortune, comes to the public eye?

ORIGINAL STORY FOLLOWS;

Did you see this on WCAX tonight? The moose that people have been referring to as “Pete the Moose” is dead.

A stunning reversal Friday evening from state wildlife officials– after assuring us for more than a week that Pete the Moose was alive, officials now say the controversial and much-loved moose is dead.

I was never part of the Pete cult. In fact, from the beginning I thought it was ridiculous that the state agencies charged with managing the wild animal population in the state were supporting the irresponsible actions of the owner of the canned hunting facility where it was kept.

I'm not a wildlife biologist or anything, but it occurs to me that  what happened to this animal is exactly what we want to avoid when we prohibit people from owning wild animals. Trimming hooves and otherwise interfering with natural processes? Who would ever think that was a good idea? In this case, the moose was rendered unconscious by the man who was taking care of him, and then apparently died when the man left him still unconscious.

I really didn't understand why Peter Shumlin would have continued the Douglas policy of letting the “owner” continue to keep this animal in captivity. Probably just pandering to the soft-headed supporters who viewed themselves as animal lovers.

What really baffles me, though, is why the Administration would get involved in a cover-up  once it was discovered that the animal was dead, but that's exactly what happened: they released phony pictures of another moose, claimed they were “Pete”, and put out the story that “Pete” was alive and well. Did they really think the truth regarding the most publicized moose in the state wouldn't come out?

We're obviously going to get more information as the story develops, but it really seems to me that somebody has to be fired for this. I would think that Wildlife Commissioner Patrick Berry, who made the false statement that”Pete” was still alive, either knew it was false when he made it, or knew that he didn't know whether it was true or false.

And then what happened next? The classic Friday night bad news disclosure.

 How is this not a coverup?