Moose calf illegally killed

Newcomb, N.Y. — DEC officials are investigating the illegal shooting of a moose calf in the Adirondacks.
The dead moose, a 244-pound calf, was discovered Nov. 1 by a caretaker at the Santanoni Club, a 4,100-acre leased tract in the heart of the Adirondacks in Essex County.
The caretaker contacted DEC dispatch in Ray Brook to report the incident, which occurred off Tahawus Road. Environmental conservation officers investigated and found the female moose calf, which appeared to have been shot.
DEC wildlife staff transported the carcass to the DEC Wildlife Health Laboratory in Delmar for a necropsy. The necropsy showed the moose was killed by a shotgun slug or muzzle-loading bullet fired through its chest.
The necropsy didn’t turn up any evidence that the moose, born this past spring, was hit by a car or was otherwise injured, DEC Region 5 spokesman David Winchell said.
Moose are a protected species in New York and are illegal to hunt. State wildlife officials estimate New York’s moose population at between 600 and 1,000 animals and growing.
DEC environmental conservation officers are investigating the incident and ask that anyone with information on the poaching call DEC’s dispatcher in Ray Brook at (518) 897-1300.
Killing a moose is a misdemeanor offense in New York state, with a maximum possible penalty of $2,000 in fines and one year in jail. 
It has been six years since the last reported moose poaching incident in the Adirondacks. That occurred in October 2008 off Owls Head Road in the town of Keene. Two men were charged in that case. Burton Smith, of Keene, was fined $2,000 and sentenced to 30 days in jail for shooting the moose. A co-defendant, Kelley Reyell of AuSable Forks, was fined $1,000 for his role in helping butcher the moose after it was shot.
The pair had quartered part of the animal out and hidden the remaining quarters. They were planning to return to pack out the rest of the meat when they were apprehended.
Sources indicated the pair had boasted to several individuals they had shot the moose, and that helped lead to their arrest.
The 2008 case was the fourth known illegal moose kill in the Adirondacks in recent years. Only one other arrest has been made, that in St. Lawrence County in a case in which a moose was killed by a bowhunter.
Other moose poaching incidents occurred in Washington and Hamilton counties in the past.