The indigenous people in Canada are “outraged” and mourning after someone killed a white “spirit moose” and left it alongside the road.
Members of the First Nations in Timmins, Ontario, want to know why someone would hunt and kill what they call one of their “spirit” animals based on the animals white appearance, per the Guardian in a piece published Sunday.
“Everybody is outraged and sad,” Chief Murray Ray, Flying Post First Nation shared. “Why would you shoot it? No one needs one that bad.” (RELATED: Watch: Great White Shark Surprises Australia Cops [VIDEO])
Sacred white ‘spirit moose’ killed by hunters, outraging indigenous population https://t.co/86ACOhaDWU pic.twitter.com/49eWXudzJa
— New York Post (@nypost) November 16, 2020
“If you have a license to shoot a cow moose, you could shoot another one,” he added. “Just leave the white ones alone.”
It comes after two female moose body remains, including their heads, were discovered on a remote road, one being a white cow. The New York Post noted that there were many signs in the area that warned against killing the protected creatures. (RELATED: Watch This Herd Of Cows Help Police Take Down A Car Thief Suspect [VIDEO])
The white moose isn’t considered albino, but gets its ghostly coloring from a
recessive gene.
“It saddens me that somebody would take such a beautiful animal,” Flying Post community member Troy Woodhouse said. “Nobody knows exactly how many are in the area, so the loss of a single spirit moose is one too many.”
An $8,000 reward to find the poachers who killed the sacred animal has been offered after Woodhouse, animal activists and a local drilling company pooled their resources together.
“Maybe hunters tried to get one moose and got the other by accident,” Woodhouse went on. “If a person does come forward and admit what they did, I would put my portion towards any of their legal fees.”
“There’s so much negativity in the world today,” he added. “It’s nice to just see some people banding together and trying to turn this into something positive.”