A Utah construction worker who killed a large,
photogenic elk along a major road through Yellowstone National Park
in the fall of 1993 and pleaded guilty to the crime will serve four
months in prison and pay $30,000 in fines. But the rank act of
poaching the elk was not what led Chad S. Beus, 24, of Salt Lake
City, to jail. Rather, it was his attempt to pay a witness $5,000
not to testify before a federal grand jury. During an appearance
before U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson in Cheyenne, Wyo., April
3, Beus apologized for poaching the seven-by-eight point bull elk.
After shooting the animal that had drawn sightseers and
photographers to Elk Park, Beus hacked its trophy antlers off and
drove away. He later took the rack to a Utah taxidermist to have it
mounted. But the taxidermist recognized the poached animal from a
photograph in Bugle, the publication of the Rocky Mountain Elk
Foundation, and alerted authorities. DNA tests proved the antlers
Beus wanted mounted came from the park elk. – Michael
Milstein
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Jail for a poacher.
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