NY: Man admits to illegal hunt after being shown photo of him posing with the buck

https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/crime/man-admits-to-illegal-deer-hunt-wny/71-a9c3d55e-e7ed-4d5a-b631-bbafa0b03c00

1/10/2026

Charges are pending for a man for what state wildlife officials called an illegal deer hunt.

The man initially denied the allegations but later admitted to harvesting a deer when officials “confronted him with the evidence against him, including a photo he obtained of the subject posing with the buck.”

The sequence of events started on Dec. 6, when a hunter called the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation about a large antlered deer he found on property where he hunts in the Town of Arcade, in Wyoming County.

“The hunter contacted (environmental conservation officers) after hearing rumors that the individual who shot the deer did not have a hunting license,” the DEC said Friday in a newsletter.

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It was later determined that the person in question did not have a valid New York State hunting license when he shot the buck. He also had his license revoked six years earlier, after a prior deer poaching conviction.

The man later failed to complete the required hunter education course that he needed to eventually buy a current hunting license and comply with New York State rules and regulations. When interviewed by officers, he told the DEC “he did not hunt all season” before changing his story when confronted with visual evidence.

The DEC cited the man, who received one ticket each for the illegal take of big game and hunting deer without a license.

Charges are also pending in Arcade Town Court.