An unidentified individual shot a large bull elk in Coffee County Sunday afternoon but for reasons that remain unknown didn’t recover his trophy. The owner of an adjacent piece of property found the dead elk and is processing the meat and mounting the head.
Elk are primarily found in western states, particularly in mountainous regions. At one time, however, they were established in nearly all of the continental United States. Over the years, though, they died out in the eastern portion of the country. There have been attempts to re-introduce elk to the eastern U.S., primarily in the Appalachian Mountains (including the Great Smoky Mountains). While elk have found these areas to their liking, about the closest you will find a wild elk to Coffee County is Tennessee.
Several private individuals have elk on their property in different parts of the county. The elk that was killed Sunday was part of a sizable herd that escaped from one of these farms. If you know where they are, they are a fairly common sight and have been reproducing. Because they aren’t native to Georgia, there is no hunting season and it’s not against the law to kill one. So the individual who shot the elk Sunday didn’t break any laws. Still, it hasn’t set well with people who live nearby.
Late Sunday afternoon, a few people who live near where the elk was found heard a gunshot. A few minutes later, a property owner near where the shot was heard was riding around a field and saw the elk. It hadn’t been dead very long. He and a friend recovered the elk, butchered him, and caped the trophy. “I don’t know who killed it. We just heard the shot and he ran out here in our field. I’m glad we found him when we did. It would be a shame for him to go to waste. At the same time, it’s sad for something like this to happen. It’s not very sporting to kill one of these elk. You can’t walk up to them but you can still get pretty close – closer than you can to a deer or another wild animal. We like having them around,” said the landowner. An elected official from that district echoed his remarks: “Why would someone do this? It’s not hunting. It’s like walking out in a field and shooting a cow. That’s not what hunting is all about.”