{"id":614754,"date":"2026-09-04T23:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/614754\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T23:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:30:17","slug":"montana-woman-uses-bear-spray-to-save-her-3-dogs-from-wild-moose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/614754\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana woman uses bear spray to save her 3 dogs from wild moose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>All <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/03\/us-news\/moose-is-captured-on-video-getting-awfully-close-to-colorado-swimmers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">hell broke moose<\/a> in Big Sky Country last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A quick-thinking dog mom saved her three adored pets from a terrifying moose attack in her Montana backyard with the help of a can of bear spray.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Moments after letting her dogs outside, Shelly Thorburn came face-to-face with a huge moose and its baby calf on her back porch in a dramatic showdown that was captured on her Ring camera on Aug. 27.<\/p>\n<p>Shelly Thorburn used a can of bear spray to fend off a vicious moose in her backyard last week.  NBC Montana<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI looked around the side of the house and it was mama moose coming, running as fast as she could with her ears pinned back,\u201d Thorburn <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/uhkKnaA7u_k?si=afPlkEpZuRtGiU--\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">recalled to CNN.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The protective beast roared onto Thorburn\u2019s backyard and was \u201cmaking these kind of grunting noises\u201d which scared off two of her pups.<\/p>\n<p>But Thorburn\u2019s beloved 14-year-old dog Annie was left behind in the chaos and was completely unaware of the looming danger. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe cannot hear, she\u2019s deaf and she\u2019s visually impaired,\u201d Thorburn said of her senior dog.<\/p>\n<p>Thorburn was particularly worried about Annie as she slipped further away from the panicked owner during the madness. <\/p>\n<p>The wild attack happened on Aug. 27, according to the Ring camera footage timestamp. NBC Montana<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo she did not know anything that was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the frantic encounter, Thorburn is seen yelling at the two wild animals while sprinting around her outdoor area in pure panic to save her beloved pets \u2014 and herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was fearful for sure, you know, because she was so big and I\u2019ve never had a big animal like that run after me,\u201d Thorburn said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thorburn ran inside and grabbed a can of bear spray to try and fend off the mama and her calf.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t realize I was doing all that but I just wanted them all in the house \u2014 everybody,\u201d she told the outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thorburn used a can of bear spray to fend the huge beast away from her beloved pups.  NBC Montana<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, the bear spray did the trick and all three of Thorburn\u2019s dogs were unharmed. <\/p>\n<p>The suburban backyard ambush took place less than an hour away from Yellowstone National Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Due to Blue Sky\u2019s location within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, moose are known to roam around the southern Montana community and are not naturally afraid of humans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHumans and moose share the same neighborhoods,\u201d according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitbigsky.com\/articles\/post\/what-to-do-if-you-encounter-a-moose-in-big-sky-montana\/#:~:text=What%20To%20Do%20If%20You%20Encounter%20A,that%20like%20to%20roam%20around%20Big%20Sky.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Visit Big Sky.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoose safety needs to be a top priority in the event that you encounter a moose while you\u2019re out and about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All hell broke moose in Big Sky Country last week.\u00a0 A quick-thinking dog mom saved her three adored&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[104635,264,16191,61,60,39102,82,2508,644,263],"class_list":["post-614754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animal-attacks","tag-animals","tag-dogs","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-montana","tag-science","tag-us-news","tag-video","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}