A Most Ungentlemanly Crime

The Headless Elk and the Pursuit of Justice

It is a rare and dismal occasion when a man must set down his morning coffee and reflect upon the peculiar brand of scoundrel loose upon the land. Yet here we are, faced with the sad affair of two noble elk, cut down in their prime, not by hunters—who at least carry the dignity of lawful sport—but by villains of the lowest sort, whose sense of decency appears to be as absent as the heads they removed.

According to the Nevada Department of Wildlife, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has now put up a bounty—a $2,000 reward—for any information leading to the apprehension of these midnight butchers. One might assume such a sum would be enough to loosen the tongue of a witness or, at the very least, set an honest man to thinking whether he has seen anything of consequence.

The first of these ignoble deeds occurred over Labor Day weekend when a bull elk was found near the railroad tracks in Uvada, just a stone’s throw from Utah. Game wardens suspect a spotlight was used—an old and underhanded trick—and the head was carried away like a trophy while the rest of the animal was left to rot, serving no man, beast, or table.

It is worth noting that a short distance away, an archery hunt was in progress, where they engaged in the legal and time-honored pursuit of game. Whether our poachers were drawn to the thrill of unfair advantage or lacked the patience for lawful endeavor remains unknown.

The second case, no less egregious, saw another bull elk gunned down near Reed Cabin Summit in early December, likewise left to waste with only its antlers missing. It seems these miscreants possess no particular appetite for meat, only the grim satisfaction of destruction.

A proper hunter, if they have even a scrap of honor, will tell you that such acts are not merely illegal—but an insult to the very tradition of the chase. It is one thing to hunt for food, for conservation, or even for sport, but it is quite another to lay waste to a creature of the wild and then abandon it as though it were an old pair of boots. Even those who have never spent a day in the wilderness can surely recognize the sheer wastefulness of such an act.

As it stands, the Nevada Department of Wildlife has little in the way of clues, save for the fact that these crimes took place suspiciously close to the Utah border, raising the notion that the perpetrators may have slunk back across state lines, hoping to avoid the long arm of Nevada’s game wardens. But, as history has shown, men who steal what belongs to the public seldom escape justice forever.

For those inclined toward civic duty—or perhaps just a few extra dollars in their pocket—the state has set up a hotline and a modern invention called the NDOW Tip app, where concerned citizens may submit anonymous tips, photos, or videos. With any luck and perhaps a nudge from a guilty conscience somewhere, the culprits will get found, and Nevada extended grace.

Until then, let it be known far and wide: there is little respect for a man who slays an animal for nothing but vanity and less still for one who lacks the courage to answer for it.