Here's the kind of story that ruins my morning. The Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division is asking for the public's help identifying whoever wasted a bull elk in Union County. Elkhorn Media Group has the request, and troopers are looking for the individual or individuals responsible.

If you're new to hunting, "waste" in this context has a specific meaning, and it's an ugly one. It means an animal was killed and the meat was left to rot. Not a clean harvest gone sideways, not a wounded animal lost despite a genuine search (that happens to ethical hunters and it haunts them). Waste means somebody killed a bull elk and walked away from the animal itself. A mature bull is a serious amount of meat. Leaving it in the field is a choice, not a mistake.

For the specifics on how to pass along a tip, use the contact information in the source article linked above or check the Oregon State Police's official channels directly. I'm not going to quote phone numbers or program details from memory in a story like this, because a wrong digit in a tipline number makes the whole exercise useless. Get it from the source and call it in.

I've spent enough seasons around hunters to know this stuff makes legitimate hunters angrier than anyone. The guy who packs out every quarter, who spends November weekends freezing in a treestand so his family has venison in the freezer, has zero patience for someone who treats a bull elk like a disposable trophy. And access is part of it too. Landowners who catch wind of wasted game close their gates, and then everybody loses ground to hunt. One person's laziness or greed costs the whole community.

Then there's the fairness angle for the animal itself, and I know some readers roll their eyes at that, but I don't care. An elk is one of the most impressive animals we have in the West. A bull that's grown a full rack has survived winters, predators, and years of hunting seasons. Killing it just to leave it dishonors all of that, frankly.

Wildlife is a public resource. That's the whole legal and ethical backbone of hunting in this country, the critters belong to everybody, held in trust and managed for everybody. When somebody wastes an elk, they break the law and they steal from everyone who plays by the rules. Same act, both true.

If you hunt that country or know folks who do, keep your eyes open and make the call. The elk can't testify, so somebody has to.