Posted on 05/08/2008 4:08:04 PM PDT by MtnClimber
An arrest warrant has been issued for Austin, Texas, businessman Jeffrey Scott Hawn in connection with the shooting of 32 bison in Park County in March.
The warrant says Hawn is wanted on one count of felony theft, one count of felony criminal mischief and 32 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, a Class 6 felony.
The bison were shot and killed on private ranches and state and federal lands about 15 miles southeast of Hartsel.
At the time of the shootings, Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener said his deputies had never seen anything like it.
"There are just hundreds of acres with carcasses laying out there," said Wegener. "There are carcasses and hides."
The 14 hunters suspected of shooting the bison belonging to ranchers Monte and Tracy Downare were camped at the nearby Hawn Ranch.
(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...
Is this so hard to understand? I’m sorry... But OF COURSE this guy should suffer some penalty (hopefully large) for killing his neighbor’s bison. Duh. He’s a douche. I get that.
My ONLY comment was that making this some sort of “animal cruelty” case then automatically puts any and all hunting up for the same review.
That’s not to mention the vagueries of cruelty dealt during bow season.
The law doesn’t allow for a difference between game animals and other when “cruelty” is involved.
Its a specific legal term. Apparently there are some here that think any shooting of game with rifles should be prosecuted as “animal cruelty”.
I don’t agree.
I agree with you that the 32 counts of animal creulty seemed strange except that they were not harvested as game.
It seems that some destruction of property charge would be more appropriate, though I am not an expert in these laws.
Some hateful goon the other day, on this same topic, accused me of being at risk of problems with LEO because I did not know the three variations of animals, livestock, wildlife and not defined, and the laws for each.
I would not shoot my neighbors animals or out-of season wild animal unless a threat of death to myself or others so it is a non issue. I will admit that there are so many laws that you cannot be sure if you are breaking one, but on this case common sense should point the way.
Good that sheriff , CBI, etc. waited to get the evidence all in.
If bison strange twist of fate (or the law) no one is punished, at least we got a bunch of South Park jokes. Thanks geo.
What a terrible waste of good meat.
Imagine how many hungry people those bison could have fed.
Good eating, too.
Barbrady from season 1 of South Park would have just stood around clueless saying “Move along. Nothing to see here. Bison turn themselves inside out all the time.”
Here’s a piece in a Seattle PI blog I just happened on about Hawn and Attachment Corp
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/archives/138570.asp
John Cook’s Venture Blog
venture capitalstartupsinvestmententrepreneursSeattle
« Tech startup of the year is a coffee company? | Main
Attachmate CEO charged with killing 32 bison
The chairman and chief executive of one of Seattle’s largest software companies has been charged with killing 32 bison on a neighbor’s ranch in Colorado.
Jeff Hawn, the chairman and chief executive of Attachmate, has been charged with 34 counts of theft, criminal mischief and aggravated cruelty to animals, according to an arrest warrant obtained by Colorado’s 9News.com.
The warrant says that Hawn killed two of the bison, while he hired hunters to kill the rest on March 19. Here’s more from the 9News.com report:
The hunters with the Atzlan Native Community killed 32 bison belonging to rancher Monte Downare on March 19, including six bulls and some cows that were carrying calves. The arrest warrant said some of the bison were skinned while most of the rest were left to rot.
The dead animals were found over hundreds of acres near Eleven Mile Reservoir in Park County. Authorities say only eight of the bison were killed on Watersedge Properties, which is owned by Hawn. The remaining 24 bison were killed on other property.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Hawn, who lives in Austin, Texas, bought his 362-acre ranch in 1995 and shortly after constructed a fence to keep out livestock. But the fence did not keep out the bison, which under open range laws are able to wander.
Attachmate, which is privately held and makes software to access information from mainframe computers, merged with rival WRQ in one of the largest private equity transactions in the state in 2005. At the time, the combined company employed about 950 people and posted annual revenue of more than $200 million.
Hawn, a former senior vice president at BMC Software and partner at McKinsey, joined WRQ in 2005.
I have a call into Attachmate to see what this means for the company.
The story is big news in Colorado, with the Rocky Mountain News’ Bill Johnson calling it “a contract massacre.”
Meanwhile, The Denver Post has some gruesome photos of the dead bison and links to the arrest warrant of Hawn. An undersheriff for Park County, where the killings took place, tells the Denver Post that arrangements are being made for Hawn to turn himself in to authorities.
UPDATE: I just heard back from Attachmate spokeswoman Susanne Smith, who would only confirm that Hawn remains the CEO of the company at this time. She declined to answer questions about the potential impact on the company or whether Hawn planned to turn himself in.
Posted by John Cook at May 9, 2008 2:53 p.m.
Are you kidding? Look, bub, here in CO killing critters and leaving them lay is taboo, big time. If these were game animals there would be serious felony charges. Since they were livestock, as the poster noted, the definition of NEEDLESSLY in the law makes the charge reasonable. It does need to be proven in court. These are livestock, not wildlife or other, game related charges would have been filed.
BTW, I know some of the Downarie family. Hahn is lucky the sheriff is after him because I wouldn't be shocked if he had turned up swinging from a tree with a "poacher" sign pinned to his chest with a Bowie knife.
Of course shooting animals and just leaving them is taboo pretty much everywhere. Shooting other peoples animals or game animals like that is illegal, and rightfully so. I’ve never said otherwise. I hope there’s a felony to pin him with.
My only point was that the cruelty charge doesn’t fit, and is bad precedent. They didn’t (from what is in the story) torment the animals or cause deliberate undue suffering. They shot them with rifles. If shooting a bison with a rifle is found to be “cruel” then so is shooting a deer.
They did plenty enough wrong to find something appropriate to charge them with. They will skate on the cruelty angle. IMO.
Jeff Hawn likely killed at least 16 buffalo over several weeks, left the meat to rot, then hired the shooters to cover his tracks.
Most of the shot buffalo would have had their calves by now, so almost double that number.
We are waiting for the liberals to defend Jeff Hawn.
/s
Hahn and his shooters are lucky the sheriff got there first.
Some of the buffalo were shot / died on BLM land plus on other private rancher’s land.
Thus these shooters were killing Downarie family livestock all over the place.
I know some ranchers in an area of Eastern Oregon that’s off the beaten track and it wouldn’t surprise me if they handled something like this in the same manner you described, or at least something very similar to it.
They’re all good people but have a low threshold to this type BS.
It's the Code of the West, as one Downaire is known to say.
OK. The law in my state is that cruelty means that somebody intentionally causes suffering or tortures an animal. If CO just says “needless” killing then so be it. Its a bit abusive of the intent of the law, but there it sits.
A decent attorney will beat it. This douche was acting for a reason. It was illegal and wrong, but it wasn’t without a reason. He was trying to keep the bison off his property. That’ll be enough to beat that rap with a jury. But there’s plenty left to nail him with that WILL stick.
Personally... I like the bowie-knife solution you mentioned above. :-). Simple and effective.
A landowner whose letter, according to officials, urged hunters to "get started" is wanted in the killings.
By Howard Pankratz
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 05/09/2008 01:55:23 AM MDT
Authorities charged Thursday that an Austin, Texas, businessman, frustrated because a neighbor's bison were wandering onto his land near Hartsel, first threatened and then organized a hunt that led to 32 bison deaths.
"You may hunt or remove them or you may remove them live and take them to the location of your choice," Hawn wrote.
The 32 bison found dead in March belonged to longtime South Park rancher Monte Downare. Hawn owns a ranch near, but not adjacent to, the Downare ranch, according to The warrant said Hawn is wanted on one count of felony theft, one count of felony criminal mischief and 32 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, a Class 6 felony.
Monte Gore, undersheriff for Park County, said charges might be filed against other individuals.
"We are leaving those options open," he said.
Gore said arrangements are being made for Hawn to turn himself in.
According to the warrant affidavit, three bison were killed on Hawn's ranch; eight on Bureau of Land Management property; four on U.S. Forest Service property; 14 on the property belonging to Catherine L. Primm; and three on the property of Robert Lemm.
Officials claim that Hawn himself was involved in killing some of the animals.
Antonino Salcedo of the Aztlan Native Community, who received the Feb. 25 letter, said that Hawn told him that he had killed two bison prior to Salcedo's arrival at the property.
Salcedo said that when he and his group arrived, they saw nine "wasted carcasses," which no one took responsibility for shooting.
Several witnesses said they saw Hawn on his property with a 30.06 rifle during the last week of February and first week of March.
Officers said that during a search of Hawn's house in South Park, they recovered a 30.06 rifle, seized empty 30.06 ammunition boxes, full boxes of 30.06 ammunition and a box with four cartridges missing.
The bison were shot after Hawn and his Denver attorney, Stephen E. Csajaghy, complained about Downare's bison damaging Hawn's property.
In a letter dated Jan. 28, Csajaghy told Downare that over the previous six weeks, there had been more than 1,000 head of Downare's bison on Hawn's property. Csajaghy said he had photographic proof that "your buffalo" had broken through gates and trespassed on more than 20 occasions over the previous two months.
And in the letter, Csajaghy threatened to kill the bison
. ". . . We are considering alternate remedies, such as allowing a hunt of any buffalo that come onto Mr. Hawn's property," Csajaghy wrote. "However, we would certainly prefer to resolve this problem amicably without having to resort to such action."
{:0)
It sounds like it was Hawns fence that was insufficient. I am just guessing that he did not try to politely work out differences. His hiring of the “Azatlan” community members to do most of the killing also brings into question his other potential radical tendencies.
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