Moose Jaw is the fourth largest city in Saskatchewan and home to the second-largest moose statue in the world. However, for 31 years, 10-metre-tall 'Mac the Moose' could look down on all other moose statues everywhere…until Norway built a bigger one, according to The Guardian.
Mac the Moose was named the city's most popular celebrity in 2013; the statue has survived graffiti attacks, aggressive weather and even the loss of his jaw. However, in 2015, Norway took Mac's title, reportedly on purpose.
Naturally, the proud residents of Moose jaw weren't content to take it on the chin.
Just Reves, a local resident, has set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise $50,000 required to alter the statue in order to make it 31 centimetres taller, which would put it back into the Guinness Book of World Records.
The initiative was endorsed by city Mayor Fraser Tolmie.
"You may not know this, but it's personal for me," he said in a Facebook video, in which he divulged that the moose was named after his wife's great uncle. "Mac the Moose was the tallest in the world, and the people of Norway have taken that from us. I'm not going to stand for it."
"We're not letting this one go. Not a chance. We're going to do whatever we can to make sure this is the world's tallest moose — or biggest moose in the future, as well," said Linda Otnes Henriksen, Stor-Elvdal's deputy mayor, in a video posted to Facebook.
According to the report in The Guardian, the municipality staff is prepared to double the size of the statue — all with the artist's permission — if it needs to. Henriksen said she is open to the idea of crowdfunding for the statue, but noted that she intends to see what the Canadians are going to do, first.
Meanwhile, the Canadians have yet to decide how exactly they are going to make their statue taller. So far, the two options on the table are simply increasing the size of its antlers or giving the moose a tall helmet.