Letter: Grain not the culprit

Re: Human food kills RFL moose, July issue.

I do not know where Officer Jackson got his information about ungulates not being able to digest grain, but I sincerely challenge that theory.

Though it may be illegal to feed grain to wild game in Colorado, deer in the east are regularly fed corn to fatten them and bait them close to deer stands for fall hunting.
Additionally, I once read a story, accompanied by pictures, of a moose in southern Canada that began following a logging team – back in the days when logging was still done with horses – when it was a calf. The moose was fed right along with the team and eventually got so friendly that they broke the moose to harness and used him for logging for a time (I didn’t believe it either when I first read it, but the pictures proved the story; pictures taken before the invention of Photoshop.)

The necropsy proved the moose died from hemorrhagic enteritis and acidosis – not by the grain in the animal’s intestines.

So be careful not to allow yourself to become a sheep! Do not believe everything you read and everything that is told to you by an “authority.” I’m sure the people who have been feeding wild game grain illegally for years are having a good laugh over this story.
What is sad is that the moose died and no one really knows the cause of the hemorrhagic enteritis.

Debrah H. Snider