Moose attack leaves woman with broken wrist

ANCHORAGE (AP) An Anchorage woman riding a bicycle startled a cow moose with two young calves and was stomped Friday.

Kathleen Laughlin, 42, suffered a broken left wrist.

Laughlin, a ski instructor, insists she was lucky.

''I thought when I was out there I was going to die,'' she said. ''I just offer a lot of caution to other folks out there.''

About 1 p.m., she said, she was riding in Hillside Park about a mile east of Service High School. She a bell tied to her handlebars to warn moose away.

''I was coming around a corner, going real slow, because of the fact that moose are out there, and I saw a mother and two very, very young babies.''

They were in the trail, maybe two car lengths ahead, as she was coming down a small hill, Laughlin said.

''It startled me, and I started to turn, and I fell.'' She tried to go back up hill but turned too sharply.

The moose began moving toward her, so Laughlin ran from her bike into the woods along the left side of the trail. Again, she tripped and fell.

''It was just like in those bad horror movies,'' she said.

She was lying on her back when the moose reared up on its hind legs. Laughlin crossed her chest with her left arm, and the moose struck it with one of its hooves. When the moose turned back toward the calves, Laughlin ran away through the woods.

''Then I stopped. I thought, if I can get on my bike, I can get out of here faster than on foot. I very carefully peeked around, and a moose was right there by my bike.''

Laughlin gave up on the bike and ran through the woods. She made it to the trailhead and met three women. They got her into her car, gave her a towel and called 911.

An ambulance arrived and took her to the emergency room at Providence Alaska Medical Center.

Police retrieved Laughlin's bike. They saw a moose on the way out but no calves and decided it was not the one that attacked Laughlin.

Cow moose are fiercely protective of their young, especially in the first months after birth, said Rick Sinnott, a state biologist.

Pregnant moose are now dropping their calves throughout Southcentral Alaska, said Sinnott.