Asheville Bears offers $14,000 reward for elk poached in Claiborne County
January 10, 2022

Elk killed in Claiborne County

A $14,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the conviction of the person(s) responsible for an elk poached on the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area in the Valley Creek area of Claiborne County. If you have any information on this crime, you can be an anonymous hero and receive a large reward. HAB’s reward for endangered and protected species is $10,000. Other efforts and rewards have another $4,000 offered in rewards for a total of $14,000.

Please call HAB at 855-767-2327 with any poaching information on this case, or any others. You can also call Poacher Strike Force at 877-773-8477, anytime day or night, and speak anonymously to a private poaching investigator. You will be an anonymous hero. These rewards are real and will be paid quickly.

Around lunchtime on Friday, Dec. 31, a local hunter reported finding a 5x5 bull elk that had been shot in the Valley Creek area of the Ed Carter Unit of NCWMA, formerly known as the Tackett Creek Unit. The elk was found dead just north of the graveyard off Valley Creek Rd., which runs through the eastern portion of the WMA. TWRA Wildlife Officer Brenden Marlow and Elk Program Coordinator Brad Miller responded to the scene and located the dead elk lying in an old coal mine road. The carcass was taken to the UT College of Veterinary Medicine where a necropsy confirmed the animal had been shot and a bullet was recovered.

The Pine Mountain Long Beards Chapter of the NWTF, Campbell Outdoor Recreation Association and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation are offering a $4,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person(s) responsible for the death of the poached elk.

If anyone has information about the case, please contact Wildlife Officers Brenden Marlow 615-571-4792 or Michael Cavins 865-318-3349, or the TWRA poaching hotline at 800-831-1174.

All caller information will remain anonymous.

Please like and follow HAB and email Amazon (jeff@amazon.com or dave@amazon.com) to finally end the cruelty caused by steel jaw traps and snares. Thousands of these traps have been sold by Amazon for years around the world. These are the same steel jaw traps and snares that have caused a historic tragedy of 30 bears confirmed missing limbs from trap escapes in a south eastern region. Twenty-seven of these are in the Blue Ridge/Smoky Mountains. Twenty-four of these are in a 90 mile radius of Asheville, NC. A total of 34 bears missing limbs have been reported and confirmed by HAB in the USA and Canada.