Woman kicked in head by moose while walking her dog

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU/Gray News) - A woman in Alaska was kicked in the head by a moose while walking her dog.

Tracy Hansen took her dog, Gunner, out for a walk on the same path she normally does three times a day.

However, their third walk on Feb. 16 took a drastic turn.

A moose unexpectedly charged behind Hansen while she was walking on the sidewalk near a car dealership before jumping over her and kicking her in the head.

“I thought someone had not been paying attention and hit me with a bike or something,” Hansen told KTUU. “I had put my hands up to my head, and I’m like, ‘I’m bleeding.’”

It wasn’t until she sat up that Hansen realized the moose that she and her dog had walked past earlier was not in front of her.

“Knowing that the moose had been somewhere behind me and now, here this moose is in front of me, and I’m like, ‘Was that the moose?’” Hansen said.

KTUU also spoke with Kate Timmons, who was driving down the road with her family. Timmons witnessed the moose kick Hansen in the head and she and her family quickly rushed in to help by diverting the moose away from Hansen and her dog.

“My husband was able to pull her over the snow bank, so we could get her in the truck with her dog and kind of get her out of the way,” Timmons said. “It definitely seemed unprovoked from our standpoint and it happened so fast it was just like, a matter of getting her out of the situation, getting her help, making sure, you know, my big thing was that she didn’t have a head trauma, that there wasn’t a bleed or something.”

Timmons said she was worried about what could have happened if her family didn’t witness the accident and spring into action. Timmons noted how tall the snow banks were, which would have made it a struggle for a passing car to see Hansen lying on the sidewalk.

Hansen said she was grateful she and Timmons crossed paths at the right moment.

“Kate and I were discussing that the Lord put her in the right place, at the right time to be able to help,” Hansen said.

On Monday, Gunner and Hansen were back walking on the same path. Hansen said that Gunner was uninjured, but she is still recovering from staples in her head, headaches and bruising throughout her body, but that won’t stop their daily routine.

“We’ll be back on our normal walks,” Hansen said. “The moose won’t stop that.”

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