Zach Urness

Statesman Journal

This story has been updated. It was originally published on April 29, 2016.

The Oregon Hunters Association is offering the largest reward in its history for information leading to the arrest of whoever poached a bighorn sheep in Eastern Oregon last month.

The reward is up to $15,000, OHA announced Monday evening.

​"OHA is adamantly opposed to poaching," OHA Conservation Director Jim Akenson said in a press release. "This bighorn case has riled up hunters across the state, as this is an iconic species that was once extirpated from Oregon by settlers."

Three bighorn rams were illegally killed in Eastern Oregon's Gilliam County during spring, according to Oregon State Police. The incident that has drawn OHA's ire — and the large reward — involved a ram being killed and left to waste along I-84 on April 10 near milepost 118 east of Rufus.

OPS is asking anyone with information to contact 541-705-5330.

OHA is the administrator of the Turn In Poachers (TIP) program that annually pays more than $13,000 to informants in poaching cases.