Ok, the headline is a bit misleading, he had a license but not a cow tag, probably a case of mistaken identification, often a cow will have a calf with her in the fall season, he might have seen the legal calf , it disappeared briefly and the cow appeared he shot it thinking it was the calf, realized his mistake and abandoned it rather than call a C.O. and confess to his mistake. It is not like he just shot a moose for thrills and let it lay. In that scenario I say about right