Insisting it’s not about Pete the Moose, Gov. Peter Shumlin is hailing a new law that makes Vermont’s wildlife a public trust, not something owned by any one individual.
On Tuesday, Shumlin signed into law a bill that requires wild deer and moose living on an Irasburg game preserve to be killed within three years, to prevent the spread of disease.
But the law spares the life of the famous bull moose known as Pete.
It reverses action lawmakers took a year ago that transferred the jurisdiction over wild animals on the Big Rack Ridge game preserve in Irasburg from the Department of Fish and Wildlife to the Agency of Agriculture.