Why not stick with your own kind?

Thanks to submissions from our faithful readers, it's a hard choice this morning among bad animal news headlines. I thought this one was pretty good:

Deer breaks into home, demolishes bedroom

 but then I got this one:

Boston school goes into lockdown due to coyote concerns 

But then this is clearly the winner:

Elk relocated after having sex with cow in public

followed closely by that of the local news story that is the source for that one:

Elk banished from 100 Mile Ranch B.C. after falling in love with cow

The headline is more politely Canadian but article itself is explicit about the situation. After three years of lurking around the herd of cows, apparently a male elk finally got up the nerve to approach one of the lovely ladies. We'll never know what his pickup line was, but it was successful, according to the rancher:

“If you were there watching, it would be an X-rated movie. Several times a day.”

Sex wasn't the offense that got the elk banished, though - it was the possibility of violence. First, traffic was backing up as voyuers tried to get a look at the show. But then, he had to be removed for his own safety:

Messner said the final straw was when hunters turned up, the lure of a six-point rack potentially dangerously enticing.

“Trucks were pulling over and people were watching this poor elk through the scope of their gun and people were doing U-turns on the highway. It was becoming a real dangerous situation.”

Messner called in the conservation officer. He, the officer and two RCMP officers sedated the elk and removed its antlers to make it less appealing to hunters and less of a threat to the cows should it decide to return.

The elk was then loaded into a truck and taken about 20 kilometres out of town, towards the mountains.

Will the elk learn his lesson, and stick to his own kind in romance? The rancher, obviously wise in the ways of bad animals, doesn't think so.

“I kind of think he will be back next year,” said Messner.

Take a look at that attractive lady elk (by Flickr user alumroot). Why would a guy need to look elsewhere?