Two elk were poached in Eastern Kentucky. Officials offer $4,000 for information.
Kentucky officials are offering a $4,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who illegally killed two bull elk in Knott County last week.
According to a post on the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources’ Facebook page, the elk were killed in the Ball Creek area of Knott County.
Fish and Wildlife spokesman Kevin Kelly said police had not made any arrests as of Monday afternoon. The elk were found whole, with antlers and meat still on the carcass.
“These elk belong to everybody in the commonwealth,” Kelly said. “It’s a selfish act and we take it seriously.”
Lieutenant Jason Slone, a district commander of law enforcement for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, said elk poaching penalties can land offenders a $5,000 fine and six months in prison. Offenders can also lose all property that was used during the poaching, and lose their hunting rights for up to three years.
“Every officer in our district is working on it,” Slone said.
The restoration of Kentucky’s elk population has been lauded as one of the state’s biggest environmental successes in recent years.
Elk once roamed much of the eastern United States, including Kentucky, but habitat loss and over-hunting — market hunters, such as Daniel Boone, would reportedly kill dozens of elk a day for market during some expeditions — led to their eradication.
The last wild elk in Kentucky was reportedly killed before the Civil War, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Elk Management Plan.
In the late-1990s, after a series of public hearings, Kentucky officials worked with wildlife agencies in Arizona, Kansas, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah to transport about 1,540 elk to Eastern Kentucky from 1997 to 2002.
By 2016, the herd numbered about 11,000 animals.
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife allows regulated hunting of elk during designated season dates, and only with tags that are given out to a limited number of hunters.
In 2016, the state received more than 70,000 elk hunting applications, but the vast majority of those applicants didn’t receive a tag.
The chances of drawing a bull firearm elk tag for Kentucky residents are 1/138. For non-residents, it’s even less likely, at 1/764. About 800 elk tags are awarded each year, according to the department.
The money from those hunting applications, and the money that the winners spend on their hunts, brought in $1.7 million to elk-population counties in 2014, according to the department.
Brooke LeMonds, an administrative assistant at the Prestonsburg tourism department, said elk viewing tours at Jenny Wiley State Park, in Floyd County, bring in a couple hundred tourists every year.
“I can tell you that the elk tours have made a huge economic impact in this area,” LeMonds said. “We have people call us all the time and ask where they can see the elk.”
“Most people treasure the elk and what they bring to our area, and then you have the rouge faction that thinks they have the right to poach them,” she said.
This story was originally published February 24, 2020 at 3:26 PM.