Two moose hit as officers tried to protect them; three euthanized near Cascade

The successive strikes on Thursday, November 5, 2026, left an adult female, known as a cow, and two calves dead in unincorporated El Paso County. The most troubling part of the account is also the least explained: how the second and third animals came to be hit after the initial collision had already brought a wildlife response.⁠1

This was not simply one vehicle striking three animals at once. A vehicle hit one moose first. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers then tried to protect the remaining two, but passing vehicles struck both. The agency has not identified which animal was hit first or described the measures officers took to protect the others.⁠1

The distinction between dying on impact and being euthanized afterward matters. Although all three animals were lost, the reported outcome was that officers had to euthanize each of them. The available account does not describe their specific injuries or the circumstances behind those decisions. It also does not establish that the calves were the cow’s offspring.⁠1

Colorado Parks and Wildlife said all three animals were donated to citizens who would use the meat. That establishes what happened to these moose; it does not establish a general right for drivers to collect road-struck wildlife. The report does not explain the donation arrangements or the procedures governing them.⁠1

The incident account rests on The Gazette’s report relaying Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s description. It establishes the broad sequence, but not a detailed reconstruction. The exact number and types of vehicles involved, the collision time, and whether any driver or passenger was injured are not given. Nor does the account provide information about citations, traffic restrictions or the status of an investigation.⁠1

Those gaps limit what can fairly be concluded. The protective effort did not prevent two more impacts. But that fact alone cannot establish whether vehicle speed, visibility, driver conduct or the officers’ actions contributed to them. An explanation of what officers were doing—and what approaching drivers encountered—is needed before assigning responsibility.

Colorado State Patrol used the incident to remind motorists that hitting an animal is a crash: drivers should stop and contact law enforcement, just as they would after another collision. That is practical guidance, not evidence that anyone involved in these strikes failed to stop. The report makes no such allegation.⁠1

Colorado’s broader wildlife-collision problem is substantial, though the available benchmark is not a current-year tally. The Colorado Department of Transportation’s “Wildlife on the Move!” guidance gives an average of 3,300 reported wildlife hits annually over “the past ten years.” The page is undated and does not identify the beginning or end of that period.⁠4

That number covers wildlife generally across Colorado. It is not a count of moose collisions, not a total for U.S. 24, and not a figure for 2026. It supplies a sense of the statewide scale, but cannot tell readers how frequently something like the Cascade incident happens.⁠4

The same transportation guidance says most wildlife-vehicle collisions occur at night and urges drivers to slow down, especially then. With no collision time given for the Cascade strikes, that general pattern cannot explain this particular event.⁠4

The immediate advice is clear; the incident itself is not. Drivers are being told to stop and report animal collisions. What remains unexplained is how an initial strike became the loss of all three moose even as officers tried to keep the remaining animals safe.