A hike turned deadly after a moose charged two women out with their dogs in Colorado.
The two women, Ellen Divis, 57, and Jacqueline Boron, 50, are both in the hospital recovering.
Last week, the two friends were taking their dogs for a walk in the Forest Hill subdivision in Gilpin County, when the hulking animal charged them.
“All of a sudden, I look up and he was looking right at me, grunted and then charged…with his head down. When his head was down he got me in the chest and that threw me back,” Baron told CBS News.
Divis managed to escape the attack and began searching for help.
Chris Hockley, a nearby neighbour, discovered Divis covered in blood and yelling frantically.
“I heard ‘help me,’ ‘help me’,” he recounted to Fox News. “This lady comes running up … and she’s covered in blood all over her arms and she’s got some on her chest. ‘He’s still hurting her, he’s still hurting her’.”
When help finally arrived, the moose had backed off and Baron was hiding behind trees. Police believe that keeping trees between her and the moose is what saved Baron’s life.
The attack left Boron with 10 staples in her head, 15 stitches in her leg, four broken ribs, and bruises all over her body. Divis, who was also trampled by the moose, is in fair condition in the intensive care unit at a local hospital.
During the attack, both dogs ran off. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials believe that the dogs could have scared the moose and caused its aggressive behaviour.
Jennifer Churchill, an official with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, told CBS, “[Moose] natural predators are wolves. When they see dogs, they pretty much think wolves.”
Although moose attacks in Colorado are very rare, officials are advising residents to be mindful when hiking in wooded areas.
In 2006, a moose attacked a 92-year-old man in a resort village about an hour away from Denver, Co. As with this most recent attack, the moose was unprovoked.
