There’s been another elk poaching in Missouri. The Missouri Department of Conservation says a female adult elk was found shot and left for dead earlier this week on National Park Service Property in Carter County.
No meat or other parts of the animal were taken, and by the time the elk was found by conservation agents, the meat was no longer salvageable for donation.
MDC is asking anyone with information about the shooting to call Operation Game Thief at 1-800-392-1111 or the MDC Ozark Regional Office in West Plains at (417) 256-7161.
This is the sixth elk killed by poachers over the last several years, according to MDC, and investigations are ongoing. MDC Protection Division chief, Randy Doman, says elk bring “significant economic, recreational, and cultural benefits” to communities, and he says the “senseless waste of the people’s resources should not be tolerated.”