BYRON – River Valley game wardens are seeking help from the public to solve a poaching case in which a bull moose was shot and left to rot on a backwoods road in Byron.
The 500- to 600-pound moose was slain sometime between 11:30 p.m. Nov. 30 and early morning on Dec. 1 and left in a pool of blood where it fell in the middle of West Branch Road, said Warden Steve Allarie on Tuesday afternoon at the Rumford police station.
“I think this will upset a lot of people, that a moose was killed for nothing,” he said.
A muzzle-loader hunter found the carcass about 2 miles in on a snow-dusted dirt road off Route 17.
The poacher had sawed off one antler and cut a small portion of meat off a flank, Allarie said.
“We don’t know why one antler was taken,” he said, adding that the poacher could have been scared off by someone else in the area.
The hunter who found the animal had a cell phone and lives nearby. He was returning from hunting when he found the bloodied moose at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Allarie said.
But, due to poor cell-phone reception and having to move the animal out of the road to drive past it, Allarie wasn’t contacted until 9 p.m. that night. He and Wardens Brock Clukey and John McDonald investigated.
“We have some physical evidence at the scene, and we’re looking for help from anyone who may have seen or heard something out there or know about this,” Allarie said.
Calls can be made anonymously to the Warden Service’s Operation Game Thief hot line, (800) 253-7887, or people can contact the Maine State Police in Gray at (800) 228-0857 and ask for Allarie.
He would not say how the moose was shot, but a bullet was retrieved from the animal and sent to the State Crime Lab in Augusta for processing.
Additionally, wardens are looking for a person who was driving an older model, black Jeep Wrangler with aggressive tires and a large winch on the front end.
“We’d like to talk to the individual, because he may have been in the area,” Allarie said.
Hunting moose out of season and taking meat are Class D misdemeanor offenses. The minimum penalty is a $1,000 fine and three days in jail if convicted.
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