A man was charged for illegally killing a mother bear in the Hudson Valley, taking the animal from her cubs.

While on patrol on Dec. 4, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officer Andy Kostuk received a tip from Captain Martin Townley and Sr. Fisheries and Wildlife Technician Tim McNamara that an illegal bear was being dropped off at a local butcher in the town of Walkill.

Kostuk went to the butcher shop and seized the bear, officials say. An investigation revealed that that a New Jersey hunter, from a private camp in Grahamsville, shot a mother bear that had been with her two cubs.

The unnamed hunter was tickets for taking a bear from a group of bears and illegally taking protected wildlife.

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