People are bullying the Missouri girl who accidentally shot an elk, her dad says

A 14-year-old Missouri girl who killed an elk that she mistook for a deer is getting trolled on social media.

Some people have no sympathy for the young huntress, who thought she bagged a big buck deer while hunting on Saturday with her father in central Missouri.

A Facebook posting by “STOP Trophy Hunting NOW” said, “Idiots and their offspring with guns in the woods, don’t even know what they’re shooting at.”

Abby Wilson’s father, Don White, is not amused. He says she’s being bullied.

“Don’t come at my daughter saying lock her away,” White told USA Today. “Wow. If my daughter gets fined, I’ll pay it and move on. So be it. We’ll deal with it.”

The father and daughter were legally hunting during deer season in Missouri. But there is no permissible elk hunting in the state, where a wild herd has been reintroduced in southeast Carter and Shannon counties.

But Wilson’s untagged elk was about 200 miles away in Boone County — a mystery. She shot it with a .243-caliber rifle and then excitedly texted her dad nearby.

“I was like, you gotta be kidding me right now,” Abby told the Columbia Missourian.

After eying the carcass, a bull with 4-point antlers, White notified the Missouri Department of Conservation.

“We think we just shot an elk,” he said.

Boone County conservation agent Adam Doerhoff was skeptical until White sent him a photo of the animal. The photo has made the rounds on social media.

The carcass is undergoing tests to see whether it’s diseased or to get clues where it came from.

It is illegal to shoot an elk in Missouri, department spokesman Robert Hemmelgarn said in a report from the Belleville News-Democrat.

“To see one in Boone County is out of the ordinary,” Hemmelgarn said.

No enforcement actions have been taken against the young hunter.

“It was very clear that, yes, that’s an elk,” Doerhoff said.

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This story was originally published November 15, 2017 at 10:48 AM with the headline "People are bullying the Missouri girl who accidentally shot an elk, her dad says."