An affectionate elk paid some Washington state firefighters a visit over the holiday weekend as they worked to tame a wildfire.
The orphaned elk, dubbed Buttons by the locals, is a fixture in Kittitas County, where she took up residence with some cows and goats on a hillside.
Kittitas County Fire District spokeswoman Richelle Risdon says she arrived at the scene on Saturday to see the elk nuzzling up to everyone in the command post area and resting her head on people’s shoulders.
Risdon snapped photos of the animal getting up close and personal with the crew and posted them on the fire district’s Facebook page.
She says she hopes with all the attention the photos are getting online, hunters will know to steer clear of Buttons.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Beautiful sight to see! Be good to all animals, they love, and have feelings, the same as we do!
Unfortantly, this beautiful animal will have to be put down as per DEC rules, they are concerned about parasites crossing over to humans. This exact thing happened a few years ago in Pulaski, New York. As wild deer would just walk up to the people in town and walk with them, a father and son were fishing and the deer made a Lifetime memory for the boy by walking right up to him while he was fishing. The father and son were gushing about the encounter a outta town Syracuse newspaper reported on the feel good story, someone from the DEC read it and said the deer had to be put down because of its close proximity to humans and the DEC ‘thugs’ came into town and did Exactly that. They never cared to even see if perhaps a zoo or someother agency could help out. True story U can check it out.
post the area the elk is in and keep the hunters from shooting this tame elk ! either that or kick the hunters ass and send him home if this should happen ! save the elk at all cost’s !
This is an female Elk yearling and no Hunter would or should ever kill her. She is too valuable to continue propagating the species. It appears that she may be someone’s pet as friendly as she is with the firemen and others.
I bet this baby elk lost her mother in the fire. She will need allot of care to be able to survive on her own. A beautiful animal. If I had my way about it all hunting would be stopped for a long time. There are not enough herds of deer, elk, antelope, moose etc. They need time to multiply properly.
ILL BET THE PEOPLE THAT LOST THERE CHILD TO AN ALLEYGATOR AT DISNEY ORLANDO DONT THINK THAT WAY.
eel river what dose a gater have to do with this elk it didn’t eat a kid the parents didn’t keep an eye on the kid it’s their fault they lost him
Heart warming to see a good story now and then.
Agreed, there is so little uplifting news these days, a small story like this is always welcomed.
Very uplifting and gives me great joy to see. It is a shame one such as this can’t be put on a preserve with other elk. So next yellow vest with a gun will have this elk walk right to him? SAVE BUTTONS
Animals have feelings weather or not they are a Pet or wild. They can tell when someone is trying to help them. It has been shown throughout time and again. What is heart warming is that someone took the time to share it with the rest of us. I thank you for these wonderful pictures of pure love!
It is common for one orphaned species to herd up with another for companionship and protection. We had a young bull elk come in with the cow herd in the winter and go back out with it in the summer. It stayed out and moved on.
Unfortunately, if she stays friendly with people a hunter will shoot her and call it hunting when it will be just a murder. Hunting is when you have to track and actually hunt and animal.
Nice heart warming article in a world of bad news.
Now get rid of the porn star ads on this page and you will have a better news site.
Hunting should be just that. If a man needs to feed his family, I condone hunting. If a man is doing it for sport, he should leave all weapons at home and give the elk an equal chance. That’s the way to prove his manhood. People raise cows, pigs, and chickens to provide his fellow man meat for his diet. An elk is much like any other herbiverous animal which God provided to convert vegetation to meat for carnivours, who must eat only meat. Dogs, Wolves, and mountain Lions, need to eat also, For them, it’s survival. The stupidest thing I can think of is a man calling it a sport when the elk isn’t also armed with a high powered rifle’
The early American Plains Indians would run the elk down, and cut it’s throat with a knife, then the entire elk would be used and nothing wasted..