From what I read on the news, there were so many of them, and some quite aggressive, they didn't dare take the chance. I read that wildlife peeps did come with tranquilizers to try to catch the rest.

What a shame that the man was allowed to "own" those creatures in the first place, for MANY reasons. Vermont has been dealing with a hot button issue with many repercussions. Anybody heard of Pete the Moose?

A mother moose and two calves were attacked by dogs (villain #1, whoever owns/owned the dogs) and a local...let's say, character "rescued" one of the calves. Mistake #2, you don't rescue wildlife unless you're licensed. He should have called the authorities, but no, he took the moose home, named it, made a pet out of it.

Then, a guy with a "game preserve" (where they raise elk and fence them in for people to pay to come "hunt" them) let the rescuer guy bring to moose to his outfit. Mistake #3, and that guy knows better. Grrrrr.

Fish & Wildlife finds out and are then in the bad position of having to do something about it. Because of the potential of disease being spread throughout the deer herd (and possibly others), F&W was forced to put "Pete" down because of other people ignoring the law (as well as the welfare of the moose)

But wait! A whole bunch of people set up websites and make signs and start a "Save Pete" campaign, so the legislature decides to turn the elk farm (and Pete) over to the Dept. of Agriculture and make the farm owner responsible. This is all done on the sneak, due to pressure from the protesters. Everybody cheers, Pete is "saved".

Not quite! It suddenly dawns on people that you CAN'T turn Pete (and the other wild deer and moose that happen to be within the fence) over to an individual. Duh, you can't "own" wildlife. So Pete gets a gubernatorial pardon, and the rest of the animals have to be killed by a certain date. See how mistake #1 has compounded SO FAR?

And it's not over. Seems that the farm owner was trimming Pete's hooves (no, you don't usually trim moose hooves, but people were feeding him beer and potato chips or whatever, and he foundered) and accidentally overdosed Pete on tranquilizers. Maybe. Or not.

Rumors went around that Pete was dead, so F&W went to check. Farm owner shows them a different moose and tells them it's Pete, so F&W commissioner gets a lot of nasty undeserved flack when people blame him for the deception.

The farm owner family finally owns up to having lied, Pete's been dead since Labor Day, and...oh oops, what happened to the carcass? No one knows. Did he have a disease? No one knows.

Lions and giraffes belong in Africa. Moose belong in the woods. People are morons, and the animals get to pay the price.