Rebel with a cause: Tow truck puts customers on hold to rescue moose

A Saskatchewan tow truck owner couldn’t ditch a moose he found stuck in the ice on the side of the road.

Clint Gottinger, owner of Rebel Towing in Kelvington, Sask., had two calls come in around 5:30 p.m. on Friday night, calling him to Wadena and Foam Lake.

“It was quite a busy run at that lake,” Gottinger recalled. He’d only just left his yard when he came to a junction where he saw the moose in distress about 10 miles northeast of Kelvington.

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“I was looking at him and … I couldn’t leave him,” Gottinger said. “The other tow jobs will have to wait.”

Figuring he could find a way to free him from the ice, Gottinger decided to lower his deck’s truck to where the moose was and put a soft sling around the moose’s body to pull it out.

“Sure enough, it worked great. I backed up as far as I could, put the deck down and I got right up to his chest,” Gottinger said. “I put that sling around, it’s nice and soft. I tried to get around his body, under his arms, but I couldn’t quite, so I winched a little bit, just around his neck.”

The moose rides on Clint Gottinger’s tow truck after being pulled from an icy ditch. (Rebel Towing/Facebook)

Gottinger said it seemed like the moose was helping a bit.

Once the moose’s body slipped onto the deck, Gottinger saw the animal’s rear end pop out of the ice. He then repositioned the sling to winch the moose up under the deck.

“Then it was easy,” Gottinger said. “Up the road he went.”

The tow truck driver said the moose was tired and stressed out from fighting with the ice, so he came along for the ride. He learned from some neighbours that the moose had been in the ditch since early in the day.

Bringing him back to his yard, Gottinger said he called his wife for assistance.

“Bring out some blankets, I got a moose,” Gottinger said he told her on the phone. “She didn’t know what the heck I’m talking about but she came with some big blankets.”

Gottinger and his wife laid some blankets out for the moose on the ground and covered him up with one, as well. Then, they left him to rest.

“We let him calm down,” he shared. Later in the evening, the moose was still there and despite the offer of oats, he didn’t eat anything. By 11 p.m., the moose was standing when Gottinger checked on the animal.

A moose was stuck in an icy ditch in April 2026 near Kelvington. (Rebel Towing/Facebook)

The moose stuck around all Saturday and Sunday. Gottinger said. “He’d stand for a while, then he’d lay for a while. Then this morning (Monday) he was gone.

“I named him and everything,” he said. “His name is Rebel.”

While it wasn’t Gottinger’s first water rescue, it was his first moose rescue.

“Us guys that have done this towing, we pretty much know how our equipment works, and I just looked at it (and thought) that deck will reach,” Gottinger said of his problem solving on Friday night.

Then, he connected the soft sling as a helpful tool.

“I pretty much had it mapped out in my head immediately,” he shared. “Just lucky it worked.

“Meanwhile, though, I’ve got other people calling me.”

Gottinger had to tell customers asking where he was that he was mid-moose rescue.

“They were very good about it,” Gottinger said, calling the story one of compassion – specifically, from his customers.

The moose, named Rebel, lies down in Clint Gottinger’s yard in blankets in April 2026. (Rebel Towing/Facebook)

“People, they’re sitting on the side of the road waiting for tow, once they heard I was saving a moose, they were understanding.”

Gottinger had to show pictures to the calls he responded to after the rescue, though.

“No one believes that a tow truck driver is late because he’s winching a moose out of the ice,” he laughed.

He said he hopes to see Rebel again, claiming the moose never compensated him for the tow.

–with files from 650 CKOM’s Roman Hayter