A pair of Cornell University students killed a 120-pound black bear before bringing the carcass back to their dorm, where they skinned and butchered the remains, officials said Thursday.
The two undergrads who had “valid New York State hunting licenses killed a bear lawfully over the weekend,” a Cornell spokesperson said in a statement.
The students then “brought the animal into a Cornell residence hall for processing on Saturday” before a “police report was made when a complaint was filed late Sunday night,” the school official said, adding that “no charges have been filed.”
An investigator with the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which oversees hunting in New York state, visited the school on Sunday and found no code violations.
The bear was killed in the DEC’s Region 4, which includes Delaware, Otsego, Albany, Columbia, Greene, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Schoharie and Schenectady counties, according to the agency.
That means the bear wasn’t killed in Tompkins County, which includes Cornell University and the city of Ithaca. Ostego, three counties away to the east, would appear to be the area of Region 4 closest to Cornell.
The state agency confirmed school findings that “the incident does not present violations of the Environmental Conservation Law or DEC regulations.”
Cornell’s intercollegiate teams compete as the Big Red but have no official mascot.
However, fans have long embraced images of a bear, and a person wearing a bear suit decked out in Cornell gear is a regular sight prowling sidelines at Big Red football and basketball games.
A growling bear plays a star role in Cornell’s athletic imagery, and bears are all over school memorabilia.
