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Moose saved by Facebook

Pete the Moose has escaped a death sentence after Vermont congressmen and thousands of Facebook fans campaigned to save his life, the Telegraph reports.

Vermont’s favourite animal, who had been ordered last summer to be removed from a game preserve or destroyed, will now be allowed to stay on the land near the US-Canada border under a compromise fashioned by state lawmakers.

The turnabout came after the 700-pound moose’s tale of woe went viral, prompting a “Save Pete the Moose” website, a Facebook page (3,510 people “like this” as of Friday), about 10,000 YouTube views and a rally at Vermont’s statehouse.

“It’s the best I could’ve hoped for,” said David Lawrence, 74, who nursed Pete to health and tends to him at the Big Rack Ridge preserve. “They wanted to kill Peter.”

The fenced-in 700-acre preserve, which charges hunters to kill trophy elk, is also home to white-tailed deer and a handful of moose - including Pete, who was adopted as a calf after dogs attacked his mother and a sibling.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .