Posted on 05/04/2008 10:31:21 AM PDT by jazusamo
In a breach of the local code of ethics -- and possibly the law -- 32 are killed after straying onto a neighbor's land.
FAIRPLAY, COLO. -- This is not a place where buffalo are welcome to roam.
When 32 bison lumbered across a fence that separated their owners' vast, wind-swept expanse of land from a neighboring ranch in March, they ended up dead.
Some fell where they were shot. Others scattered, galloping for miles before they succumbed in the snow.
They were victims, contend the bison's owners, of a murder plot hatched by the neighbor, a Texan frustrated by what he called the repeated trespassing of the herd onto his land.
Law enforcement officials are closemouthed, saying only that they are investigating.
At issue, said Park County Undersheriff Monte Gore, is whether the culprit violated Colorado's century-old open-range law, which says livestock may go pretty much where they please.
Throughout the West, many states still adhere to the open-range principle, a throwback to the 1800s that says it is not a rancher's responsibility to keep livestock fenced in -- it's everyone else's job to keep them out.
If you don't want someone else's cow on your land, the law goes, build a fence. If the cow crosses your fence, you can lock it up until its owner retrieves it, and you can sue the owner for damages. But you can't kill it, said Rick Wahlert, Colorado brand commissioner.
In Colorado's high country, transplanted city dwellers often don't understand, Wahlert said.
"They ask why should they have to fence their property?" he said. "I say, 'OK, fine. You lived in town. Say you had a swimming pool. Did you let the neighbor kids run through? How did you keep them out? You put up a fence. It's the same concept.' "
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
They are not hunters! Assassins is exactly what they are.
Heard anything about this, George?
These guys sound like they just drove up in their BMW SUVs, rode out on some snow mobiles, and just fired away. Its going to be hard to convince anyone in Colorado that they earned the title of “hunter”. In most states...we’d have little to describe their hunting “skills”....other than not shooting themselves.
If I were one of these guys...I’d find a good lawyer and prepare to pay for the bison and damages. I’d be guessing a total of $200,000 will have to be paid...to make the bison owner happy. This will be an expensive “hunt”.
I’ve been to Fairplay.
Waaay back in the boonies. Not a touristy place, unless things have changed since.
“murder plot” ????
Leave it to the LA Slimes to use the term “murder” when referring to the killing of animals.
Remind me again, how often they have used the term “murder” when referring to the killing of unborn, HUMAN BABIES?
I believe you’re right about it being an expensive “hunt.”
It could well be double that figure or more with fines and restitution with the bison being valued at up to $2500 each.
Hey, where were you in the other animal abuse thread when I was waiting for the “what about the millions of abortions” crowd to show up.
It’s a shame and no matter how this turns out it’s going to be very difficult for the neighbor, as it should be. He definitely isn’t going to fit in after this.
On March 19, the carcasses were found on the Hawn ranch, other private property and nearby federal lands. The sheriff quickly rounded up 14 hunters who were camping on Hawn’s property. They said they had been given permission to shoot the bison, but who gave them that permission is part of the investigation, Gore said.
Agreed, murder is really pushing it, slaughter is more appropraite. Not surprising for the Slimes though.
Sounds like the work of the Texas billionaire that owns Kay Bailey Hutchinson, the one that was hunting(slaughtering) game animals in Russia from a helicopter.
Another sticking point is the fact that the shooters didn’t harvest the meat.
“A hunter won’t shoot it and leave it,” said Armstrong, the owner of the Silverheels. He noted that the deaths of the bison — valued at up to $2,500 each — represent the loss of several generations in the herd.
“They’re assassins, not hunters,” Agosti said. “You go out to a field and walk up and shoot it: That’s hunting? Come on. I hunt elk and deer. If I don’t consume it, I won’t shoot it. To let it rot . . . there’s no honor.”
Sounds like a "Carpet-Bagger" Texan acting like a "Carpet-Bagger" Californian.
As I understand it, bison are often raised for meat nowadays. At what point do they stop being "wild animals" and become livestock under the law?
If they were wild animals, wouldn't the "hunters" need licenses to kill them?
In most states, even if you have a license, failing to use the meat of an animal you kill is an offense.
Real tough guys huh?
Your statements of fact are right on . Your questions lead to more questions , probably answered in the state code .
First, I am NOT defending this guy’s actions. He violated a law in umpteen western states, and a felony charge can be brought in most all western states for what he has done.
That said, people who have never been around bison need to understand that they’re not simply “bigger cows.” Bison are not cows - not even remotely. Bison are a force of nature. Individually, they’re like a tornado. In a herd, they’re like a hurricane.
I’ve seen bison push their way through Powder River gates (a brand of very high quality steel panels, gates, cattle handling equipment, etc). I don’t mean that they ran into them and knocked the gate over. I’m talking that the bison walked up to the locked gate, put his head down and pushed his way through. The bars on the gate simply spread like bars of butter and he simply pushed through.
Why did he do this? He wasn’t mean. He simply wanted to be on the other side. Calm as a sunday school teacher.
On the other side, he proceeded to push over small (6” diameter” pine trees as he used them as back scratchers. Bison are simply destructive. You’ve heard the old saying about “bull in a china shop?”
Bulls are pussycats next to bison. And the whole world is a china shop for bison.
They’re not cattle. A “legal” fence, per the code in western states, won’t hold bison. In Jiggs, NV there used to be a smaller ranch where someone was running bison. They used 4” gas field casing pipe (3/8” wall steel pipe, 4” diameter) sunk 10’ into the ground, and then they mounted galvanized steel guardrail on these pipes. The fence was six feet high.
That held them.
These two have been fighting for a while. A long time local rancher following the ranching practices set since the 1800’s versus a city slicker with no common sense ?
These types of problems are exploding because city slickers with lots of money ( think Ted Turner ) are buying up working ranches, then get mad that they are next to other working ranches.
You need a very massive and tall steel fence for buffalo and elk; Buffalo will easily walk thru three wires and some posts.
The city slicker hired some ‘hunters’ to kill the buffalo that tresspassed. Apparently, some of the buffalo were killed on federal land.
The sherriff has been very quiet so far.
Others may know some more.
This is just the latest :
Longtime Colorado rancher Monte Downare filed the lawsuit in Park County District Court Tuesday against Austin, Texas, businessman Jeff Hawn ...
Throughout the West, many states still adhere to the open-range principle, a throwback to the 1800s that says it is not a rancher’s responsibility to keep livestock fenced in — it’s everyone else’s job to keep them out.
If you don’t want someone else’s cow on your land, the law goes, build a fence. If the cow crosses your fence, you can lock it up until its owner retrieves it, and you can sue the owner for damages.
But you can not kill it.
In Colorado’s high country, transplanted city dwellers tend to have trouble understanding the idea...
In the mountain valley at 10,000 feet known as South Park ... ranchers are doing a slow boil over what they consider a terrible breach of the local code of ethics demanding that neighbors help each other out.
“You work together,” said Timm Armstrong, who runs a herd of longhorn cattle, as well as a truck stop at the edge of town.
By most accounts, Monte and Vaughn Downare and Jeff Hawn didn’t have that kind of relationship. The Downares have lived and ranched here a long time, according to locals; Hawn, who lives in Austin, Texas, bought his 362-acre Colorado ranch in 1995.
When he arrived, Hawn built a fence to keep out intruding livestock, according to a lawsuit he has filed against the Downares.
Colorado law spells out what constitutes such a fence: three strands of barbed wire, with posts set 20 feet apart, “sufficient to turn away ordinary horses and cattle.”
This spring, the Downares contend in their counterclaim, Hawn and his Denver lawyer, Stephen Csajaghy, “conspired to hire” hunters to shoot the animals.
On March 19, the carcasses were found on the Hawn ranch, other private property and nearby federal lands. The sheriff quickly rounded up 14 hunters who were camping on Hawn’s property. They said they had been given permission to shoot the bison, but who gave them that permission is part of the investigation, Gore said.
Throughout Park County, where a stray cow or wandering bison is hardly an oddity, people fumed.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004391154_bison04.html?syndication=rss
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