Pedals, a beloved bear that walked upright like a person in suburban New Jersey, is thought to have been killed by a hunter with a bow and arrow last week, as part of the state’s week-long legal hunting season.

Lisa Rose-Rublack, a local activist who had led a petition drive to put Pedals in a sanctuary, told CNN that state officials on the scene confirmed a carcass brought in by a hunter was Pedals, although the state’s official press office says biologists cannot conclusively confirm the animal’s identity, absent a tracking collar or a history of DNA records.