At approximately 11 a.m. on Friday, October 27, the Teller County Sheriff’s Office received a call about an elk stopping traffic on Highway 67 north of Woodland Park, near the Southmeadows Campground. The caller said the elk had been spray painted and had a bag on its head.

The sheriff’s office responded to the call, and, at the same time, contacted District Wildlife Manager Tonya Sharp of the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Sharp was on the other side of the county, but after discussing the situation, she asked the sheriff’s deputy to euthanize the elk.

A hunter agreed to take the elk and utilize the meat. When the elk was field dressed, bailing twine, a rubber glove, and a plastic grocery bag were found in its stomach.

The elk was a year-and-half old female weighing more than 300 pounds. At the time of its death, the elk had what appeared to be pink spray paint on one side. In addition, an orange mesh vest and a cloth Halloween costume were wrapped around its neck.

The story of this elk started more than a year ago when it was "adopted", by Kayo Armentrout and Marsha McCain of Woodland Park, as a young calf. The DOW first heard about the elk in June, 2000. Some of Armentrout’s neighbors began complaining about a now grown 300-pound elk trampling their property, sleeping on their porches, and generally "causing a nuisance", according to the reports. At one point, the elk tried to break into one of the neighbor’s houses.

Sharp talked to the neighbors and advised them "to do some negative conditioning", in an attempt to deter the elk from frequenting their property. She suggested removing food sources, (e.g., bird food, livestock feed, hay, etc.). At the same time, Sharp advised Armentrout and McCain to do the same.

On October 9, a Woodland Park family called 911 after the elk attacked them as they were hiking on a pedestrian trail near the Southmeadows campground (in the vicinity of the Armentrout and McCain residence). There is at least one other documented case of this elk attacking a human. It is believed there may be more instances that went unreported.

The DOW made the decision to destroy the elk because it had become a threat to public safety. A 300-pound elk can easily kill an adult, and is especially dangerous to a young child who might not know enough to keep a safe distance from an unpredictable wild animal. While it is unfortunate the elk was destroyed, the alternative might have been a seriously injured—or dead—person.

Wildlife professionals across the nation agree there is a big difference between wild animals that "imprint" on people and wild animals that become "accustomed to living in close proximity to people".

Animals that "imprint" on people are the most dangerous type of wildlife. The elk in Rocky Mountain National Park, for example, are accustomed to people. Although they pose a potential danger, the elk usually keep a safe distance from people and will flee if a person tries to get too close to them. On the other hand, an elk that imprints on people is far more dangerous than even a bear or a mountain lion because once an elk imprints on people, it does not know how to act like an elk.

There are numerous cases of people being killed by deer that they have raised. One of the most recent cases was in October 31, 2000, in Minnesota. According to the report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, A Forest Lake man was killed when the family's pet whitetail buck gored him to death. In Kansas on September 16, 2000, a 75-year old woman was killed by an eight year old buck that she had raised. Her husband found the woman's body when she failed to return from feeding the deer. The 200-pound buck had gored and trampled her. Each year Alaskan wildlife officers are forced to kill five-to-ten moose in and around Anchorage. In nearly all of the cases wildlife biologists report there was a pattern of food habituation. According to Bruce Barley of Alaskan Fish and Game, the moose begins to expect food from every human and becomes aggressive when people don't feed it. In Galesburg, Illinois, a man was killed by a deer he raised as a pet. Wildlife biologists believe the deer's behavior switched because of hormonal changes related to the beginning of the breeding season.

The people who "domesticated" this elk near Woodland Park said they wanted the elk to return to the wild. Although their intentions were good, they did not fully understand the unintended consequences of their actions. Once the elk imprinted on them, the elk was put in a lose/lose situation. It became impossible for the elk to ever return to the wild as a normal, healthy elk because it would be forever dependent on humans.

Just because an elk might not act aggressively at one given moment, there is no guarantee how it may act at any other given moment, as was the case when it chased the family on the hiking trail.

Relocating this elk would result in moving the problem somewhere else. There are virtually no places in Colorado where this elk would not seek out humans.

It is illegal in Colorado to feed big game, and possess or transport wildlife; sick, orphaned, and injured wildlife should be handled only by trained and licensed wildlife rehabilitators. Wildlife rehabilitation permits are only given to people who have adequate training and facilities to care for sick, injured or orphaned wildlife in a manner that minimizes human contact and maximizes the chances that wildlife can be returned successfully to the wild. It is not legal to "adopt" wildlife as a personal possession or pet.

Please, don’t domesticate our wildlife! They deserve to be wild and we, the public who owns all wildlife in the state of Colorado, deserve to see them in a wild state.