Looks like the court system might have a case of "moose-taken" identity on its hands.
One year ago last week, Penn State Fayette student Amy Walters made international headlines after filing a lawsuit alleging that a moose head fell on her as she was taking an exam in the campus's Biomedical Technology Building in Feb. 2005.
"The force of this impact caused Ms. Walters to fall into a chair positioned behind her...at that time, the moose head, which had fallen off of the wall and struck her in the head near the right temple, fell into her lap," according to the lawsuit.
The suit alleges that Walters has continued to suffer from "severe headaches" since the accident occurred.
The story was picked up by news outlets including the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and even BBC News.
But now, it appears that the moose head might not have been a moose head after all.
Paula Congelio, director of finance and business at Penn State Fayette, said that the head actually belonged to a caribou. She also said that she believes the head has been placed in storage.
Don Wagner, unit manager of the Penn State Deer Research Center, said that antlers are the easiest way to tell the two species apart. Moose antlers are more flat and broad, whereas caribou antlers are thinner and have more individual tines, he said.
"They would be very easy to tell apart," he said. "There really shouldn't be any mistake between them."
Wagner said moose are also generally bigger. Moose males usually weigh between 1200 and 1600 pounds. Caribou males generally weigh just 350 to 400 pounds, he said.
Walters' attorney, Sean J. Carmody, didn't return multiple calls for comment over the past week. Penn State's legal counsel didn't return a call for comment either.
Walters' case continues to work its way through the Fayette County court system. Court documents indicate that a board of arbitrators awarded Walters $10,000 in June 2008, but her attorney appealed that award in July.
-Guest blog by Ryan Pfister
