FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) – A 700-pound bull moose that got too close to the Merritt Parkway in Fairfield has been shot by police officers.

The state Department of Environmental Protection started tracking the moose in Newtown on Tuesday and had hoped to tranquilize it.

But the department was afraid the moose was a danger to motorists, so when it wandered into Fairfield on Wednesday police there were authorized to shoot it.

State workers donated the meat from the average-sized moose to Hunters for the Hungry in Groton.

In June, a moose was hit and killed by a car in New Canaan a few days after it was spotted wandering near the Merritt in Easton. The New Hampshire woman who hit it was seriously hurt but survived.