Tuesday, February 27, 2007

From Richard Reynolds

Mark - - - Fred Dahlinger Jr., long time archivist and photo expert at the Parkinson Library, Circus World Museum, Baraboo, WI thinks this may be a fake photo. I quote Fred as follows - -
Richard:
Are you certain that you haven't been spoofed? I imagine that anything is possible, but it sure looks to me like someone skillfully merged horse harness with a photo of a moose and created some "up nort" humor.
The picture of the moose has the appearance of being skillfully manipulated. One cannot see any shadows anywhere, the meeting of the fur and the harness is totally clean, with no overhanging hair, etc. It's exactly the sort of image that causes one to question it. I also searched on line for Jacques's address and he's not listed. That's not conclusive, he might just not have a phone in the woods.
I don't doubt the intelligence of the animal or the ability to be trained, but the picture just looks suspicious in the manner in which it is arranged.
How did you get the photo?
I guess some inquiry could be made of the Maine Forestry Service or its Wildlife Department.
What say you?
Richard

6 comments:

GaryHill said...

When I saw this on the horseshoers site ,it would not enlarge like it does here when you click on it. Now that I can enlarge it, I just noticed that the two log piles are exactly the same only turned around! Check out the size and number of logs and they mirror each other? Too bad if it is fake, would be really neat if real!

Anonymous said...

Y'all check out this link for the down low on the photo ...

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/workmoose.asp

May clear up a few things.

Respectfully,
Cap'n Mike
Myrtle Beach, SC

Anonymous said...

I think I might have seen this one pre-photoshop as a gag postcard in Maine. It's easy to find it on various "urban legend" sites.

Ben

Anonymous said...

Well, all I know is we have a pair of jackalopes on the Van Hooten show one year. They worked in harness during the tear-down til one of them drank the water out of the first center pole and swallowed some of the old man's prize goldfish. And that was the last we ever saw of that.

Anonymous said...

I remember that! I was looking for the side-pole splitter and the bale-ring key that morning...
:-)
Cindy Potter

Anonymous said...

Cindy: Was that you? Small world, eh?