MONCTON, N.B. – Graphic videos of a forest ranger putting down a moose in Moncton earlier this week has raised the ire of animal lovers on Facebook, but a supervisor with the department of natural resources is defending the practice.

Leon LeBlanc says rangers spent the better part of the day on Tuesday scaring two moose away from Highway 2 at the edge of the Caledonia Industrial Park.

The shooting occurred when one of the animals returned later in the day and seemed unfazed by attempts to scare him off.

LeBlanc says two shots were fired in an attempt to scare the moose, but the second round wound up wounding the animal.

Subsequent shots were fired to put the moose down, and LeBlanc admits it took a little longer than it should have.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t hunt, and they don’t realize that it’s a big animal and even though you shoot it, it doesn’t die instantly, it’s going to take few minutes.

He says the ranger may have been distracted by a group of onlookers who were heckling him by this point.

It took two more shots to put the moose down.

He says the incident will be reviewed to see what, if anything, could have been done differently.

New Brunswick forest rangers do not have access to tranquilizer drugs, so LeBlanc says relocating the animal was not an option.