{"id":35565,"date":"2026-07-01T16:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=35565"},"modified":"2026-06-28T15:45:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T20:45:28","slug":"kittson-county-faces-dnr-lawsuit-over-elk-tag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/kittson-county-faces-dnr-lawsuit-over-elk-tag\/","title":{"rendered":"Kittson County Faces DNR Lawsuit Over Elk Tag"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Kittson County Faces DNR Lawsuit Over Elk Tag<\/h2>\n

Kittson County<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has filed a civil lawsuit against county law enforcement officials.<\/p>\n

The case was filed on August 7, 2025, in Minnesota\u2019s Ninth Judicial District Court.<\/p>\n

It carries court file number 35-CV-25-109.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges an unauthorized tag came from the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The document was called an \u201cElk Possession Tag.\u201d It followed an elk shooting on private farmland.<\/p>\n

The DNR claims only its agency may authorize possession of Minnesota wild animals.<\/p>\n

It asks the court to block county officials from issuing similar permits.<\/p>\n

DNR Describes January Elk Shooting<\/h2>\n

According to the complaint, a farmer reported elk damaging hay, beet pulp, and planted crops.<\/p>\n

The court filing identifies the farmer only as C.C.<\/p>\n

The filing alleges a county official discussed shooting an elk to protect the property.<\/p>\n

Later that month, C.C. reported shooting an elk near stored feed.<\/p>\n

The complaint says C.C. was then allowed to keep the animal.<\/p>\n

It also alleges that no local criminal charge would be filed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On February 3, 2025, the sheriff\u2019s office allegedly issued the possession tag.<\/p>\n

The document claimed to allow possession of the dead elk.<\/p>\n

The DNR says C.C. lacked a state elk license and a valid tag.<\/p>\n

The agency also says it received no immediate report about the shooting.<\/p>\n

DNR Learned About Tag in April<\/h2>\n

The complaint says the DNR learned about the incident in April 2025.<\/p>\n

A conservation officer contacted the sheriff\u2019s office on April 8.<\/p>\n

County officials later provided information and an incident report, according to the filing.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit argues elk are protected wild animals under Minnesota law.<\/p>\n

State law tightly controls elk hunting, licenses, seasons, and possession.<\/p>\n

Readers can review Minnesota\u2019s official elk hunting information<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s specific elk law appears in Minnesota Statute 97B.515<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Court Asked to Block Future Tags<\/h2>\n

The DNR seeks a writ of quo warranto.<\/p>\n

That legal action can challenge powers claimed by a public official.<\/p>\n

The agency also seeks a ruling that county officials cannot issue wildlife tags.<\/p>\n

It wants a court order blocking future permits for elk and other wild animals.<\/p>\n

The complaint contains allegations that have not been decided by a judge.<\/p>\n

No court ruling was included with the filing.<\/p>\n

Public documents may be searched through Minnesota Court Records Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Kittson
Kittson County Faces DNR Lawsuit Over Elk Tag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota DNR sued Kittson County officials, alleging an unauthorized elk possession tag followed an unlicensed shooting on a farm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[768,772,3046,3678,960,1846,6102,279,20135],"class_list":["post-35565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-county","tag-crime","tag-dnr","tag-elk","tag-faces","tag-kittson","tag-lawsuit","tag-over","tag-tag","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35569,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35565\/revisions\/35569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}