Sask. man fights off starving moose with fists, shovel and bullets to save his mother

The wind chill in Bienfait, Sask., made it feel like –40 when Angie Tuffnell stepped outside to start her car. It was like just any other day, until it wasn't.

"I heard her yelling," said her son, Shawn Tuffnell. "I went running down the stairs ... what I seen was a moose standing over top of her."

A starving and cold moose was huddled against the house, tucked next to the warmth of a dryer vent. It didn’t take long before it attacked Angie. 

A chaotic struggle ensued as Shawn decided to confront the animal head on, literally.

"My first instinct — that I didn't think too well on — I walked out and punched it right in the face," Shawn told CBC's The 306. 

The blow split the animal's lip, but it didn't back it off. The moose lunged, narrowly missing Shawn’s face. He grabbed a shovel, striking the animal three times, but the moose kept coming. 

As he retreated into the house, the moose followed, pushing its front shoulders through the doorframe.

"He was right in the house floor ... trying to get me," Shawn said.

When the animal turned back toward his mother, who was still pinned on the frozen ground, Shawn grabbed it by the ears and nostrils. He wrestled the animal into a headlock, pinning its jaw against his stomach to avoid being bitten, using the doorframe as a shield against its hooves.

"I didn’t care what it was doing to me," he said. "All I could think was just getting him blind so he couldn't see her anymore."

The ordeal ended only after his mother’s boyfriend finally brought a .22-calibre rifle. Shawn took the gun and fired multiple shots to take down the animal.

He first shot the moose in the eye to stop it from targeting his mother. Then he reloaded. 

"I think give or take 15 bullets. I finally dropped him," Shawn said. 

A post-mortem exam by the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative later confirmed that the moose died from "multiple gunshot wounds to the head," including one that finally penetrated the brain.