I have no information about whether this animal was harvested legally or not, but if it was illegal, I don't care if the elk was brown, piebald, black, or purple. The person should be held accountable for that. The characteristics of the animal are irrelevant to that equation. But, for sake of argument, let's assume it was harvested legally. I would argue the characteristics of the animal are still irrelevant to the equation.
What the heck does anyone here care at that point? A person had an antlerless elk tag and killed an antlerless elk. Whether they did it for the uniqueness of the animal or simply for the meat...who cares? I see on this forum all the time people congratulating hunters for such "cool character" on animals. Why are cow elk immune from that analysis? And who got to decide that?
Some of you on this thread sound like Jimmy Kimmell fake crying on his tv show over Cecil the Lion several years back.
The fake outrage in our society these days never ends man. It gets old fast!