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**Lady Cop** · 08-06-2009, 08:15 AM

sweet.

RASBURG, Vt. - For the last year, David Lawrence has cared for a young moose named Pete that he nursed back to health after it was attacked by dogs and separated from its mother.

Now, Pete eats leaves out of Lawrence⿿s hands and lets the 73-year-old farmer scratch his neck like a horse or an oversized dog. Sometimes Pete chases after Lawrence in his pickup truck as he leaves the fenced-in elk hunting preserve where the moose lives.

⿿I feel that he and I have a bond that I think is unique and I think he⿿s a bit confused as to just who he is,⿝ Lawrence said. ⿿I⿿m not sure he thinks he⿿s a moose. I think he thinks I⿿m his father or something, maybe his mother.⿝

But the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife said Pete and other native deer and moose living in the compound shouldn⿿t be mixing with the farm-raised elk - animal feed could introduce chronic wasting disease, a brain ailment that strikes deerlike animals.

It may be necessary to destroy Pete and the others

NO!! They can⿿t be released into the wild, officials said. The state⿿s top game warden, Col. David LeCours, said the department would be open to finding a way to save the animals, but the bigger issue is the health of Vermont⿿s wild deer and moose.

Lawrence said he knew it was illegal for him to tame Pete, but he took over the animal⿿s care more than a year ago after hearing about the dog attack. ⿿We⿿re human beings and we⿿re farmers and we can⿿t stand to see an animal die if we can save it,⿝ Lawrence said.