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You really need to read the law. Here’s a bit of unsolicited advice: If you’re going to be this studiously ignorant of the law, you might want to keep quiet if you ever get into a scrape with a LEO.

There aren’t just two classifications of animals in the law. Livestock, as a legal term, is defined in the statutes just as I’ve said. Bison/buffalo are not included in the definition. Just because an animal isn’t included in the definition of “livestock” doesn’t make it “wild.” A dog isn’t included in the definition of “livestock,” yet no one would claim their neighbor’s dog coming onto their property is a case of a “wild” animal upon your property.

A “wild” animal is not only one that isn’t owned by anyone. If the animal comes from domesticated blood lines, then a domesticated animal for whom there is no ownership claimed is called “feral.”

For example, many people get all weepy about the “mustangs” in the west. The truth of these horses is:

1. They, at one time, were livestock or domestic animals, depending on whether they were livestock or pets, respectively.

2. People turned them out and disclaimed ownership. At this point, they became feral.

3. Now people have hung the term “wild horses” on them, even tho if you catch them up and train them, you can work them pretty much like any other horse, disproving the notion that they’re “wild.” They’re just domesticated animals that have been allowed to run loose, ie, feral, like stray dogs.

These bison sound like a domesticated (from a legal standpoint) herd. You can’t make a bison do anything it doesn’t want to do, but if the herd was obtained from other domestic bison herd owners, then these are domestic animals, not wild.

Back to the issue at hand:

There is no hunting license needed to shoot bison on deeded lands in Colorado; you can book a hunt (for money) on many private ranches throughout the west (Colorado included) and hunt bison. No license is needed, you just need to pay the ranch owner. There are (to my knowledge) only three truly “wild” herds of bison in the US that can be entered into B&C books; for these, you would need a license and to draw a tag.

Since these animals were owned privately, and were supposed to be on the adjoining deeded lands, they are not “protected.” Not even Yellowstone’s bison are protected. As soon as they wander outside the boundaries of the park, they can be (and often are) shot.

The issue in this case is one of destruction of personal property (that much is plain), and possibly ‘conversion’, ie, turning someone else’s property into cash without a proper sale having taken place. This would/could apply if the person calling in the shooters took a fee for allowing the shooters access and opportunity to shoot the bison. Since each animal is worth in excess of $2,500 purely for the meat (which was allowed to go to waste) and probably several hundred dollars more for a tanned hide, taking nothing but the slaughter value amounts to a possible felony charge for each animal. As to any possible conversion - I don’t know whether the DA would try to make the charge.

If the owner can show they were part of a breeding program, and that the female bison were pregnant, then he can also demand compensation for the calf crop he can document.

If the owner can show that he was selling animals based on bloodlines, then he could claim an even larger premium.

The DA, if he has half a brain, should cut through all the emotional crap he’ll be hearing about this and treat the animals the way he would a car that a neighbor burned up because the owner of said car parked on the offender’s land. There’s clearly felony charges available to be made here, but not the ones you think.