—ping—
I’m not saying that Hawn was right, but didn’t Downare have some obligation to keep his animals on his property? It sounds like this went on for some time, with the rancher not making much of an effort.
I’m not sure why this isn’t considered a form of rustling.
By Howard Pankratz
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 09/02/2008 12:11:07 AM MDT
South of Hartsel, the South Platte River meanders through some of the most fabulous ranch and fishing land in the nation.
On a late summer afternoon, the sheer beauty of the setting caused a couple of motorcyclists to stop and point their cameras at a group of handsome horses standing near the river.
Exactly five months earlier, a group of 14 men pointed not cameras but guns at a group of bison and shot them dead. Killed were 32 bison belonging to longtime South Park rancher Monte Downare.
The slaughter has caused an outrage that the beauty of Colorado's South Park can't hide. The anger flows from the mouths of South Park residents; it is genuine and deep.
Some is directed at the men who shot the animals. But most is focused on Texas businessman Jeffrey Hawn, who authorities allege in criminal filings killed some of the bison himself and told the 14 hunters they could do whatever they wanted with Downare's bison — including slaughtering them. Hawn is due in court Sept. 15.
"I've never seen anything so cruel and inhumane," said Alice Dragoo, who works at Hutchison's Lumber in Fairplay. "It was wrong. Bottom line, it's wrong."
Susan Jones, who raises Texas Longhorn cattle and works at the South Park Mercantile store in Hartsel, said she was "very, very angry" over the shootings.
"This has been a ranching community for 150 years," Jones said as she worked the cash register at the store. "We try to work out problems, but we don't take it out on the animals."
A few years back, Hawn bought land not too far from Downare's spread and built a beautiful home.
This spring, Hawn complained to Downare that bison were leaving Downare's ranch and tearing up his property.
Hawn had his lawyer, Stephen Csajaghy of Denver, write a letter to Downare.
Killing preceded suit?
In the letter, Csajaghy said that the bison were breaking through Hawn's fences and illegally grazing on Hawn's property. It also said that in the six weeks prior to Jan. 28, when the letter was written, the bison had come onto Hawn's property more than 20 times.
Csajaghy warned that because Downare was apparently doing nothing about it, the next time it happened, they would file a lawsuit and perhaps allow a "hunt of any buffalo" on Hawn's property.
On March 10, Hawn sued Downare in Park County District Court in Fairplay.
But even before then, investigators and prosecutors allege, circumstantial evidence indicates that the killing of the bison had already begun — possibly by Hawn himself. The 14 men were caught shooting bison over hundreds of acres on March 19 after Downare's wife, Tracy, heard gunshots.
The men told investigators that when they arrived, they found rotting carcasses of slain bison in the area.
In an arrest warrant, investigators say the bulk of the bison — 14 of them — were killed on land owned by Catherine Pimm. Eight were killed on Bureau of Land Management property, four on U.S. Forest Service property, three on property of Robert Lemm and three on Hawn's ranch.
Pimm said she knows both Hawn and Downare and gets along with both.
"Jeff Hawn called me at the end of February and forewarned me that buffalo had been getting on both of our properties and they had called Monte (Downare) and told him to get them off," Pimm said.
Hawn told her that Downare would come get them but they'd just come back. As a result, Hawn said he was going to hire some men to haul them away.
"I said, 'Well, what are they going to do with them after they haul them away?' And he just kind of laughed and said presumably, they will eat them," Pimm said.
"I should have called Monte (Downare) or the sheriff's department at that time, but I had no earthly idea he was going to kill them," Pimm said.
Pimm was appalled by the slaughter.
"In Denver, if somebody would poison a dog or cat, they would be in real big trouble," she said. "But some 30 buffalo? . . . I mean that is horrible to shoot innocent animals like that."
South Park residents say that under Colorado's open-range laws, it is the duty of property owners to erect fences to keep cattle and bison out. It is not the duty, they said, of the rancher to fence cattle and bison in.
Hawn maintains that he built fences to keep the bison out, to no avail. He said the bison broke through, stampeded onto his property and killed hundreds of trees, knocked down satellite dishes and damaged solar panels.
Jeanine Keller, a waitress at Millonzi's Restaurant in Fairplay, said that some people do understand Hawn's frustration and that some have empathy for him.
But a majority, including many customers of the restaurant, feel that Hawn engaged in "overkill," Keller said.
"I feel it was just appalling that this person, who is not from this county, came in and took such aggressive action. I was shocked. I thought it was mean," said Keller.
By killing the bison, Hawn ignored that they represented the very foundation of Downare's and other ranchers' economic way of life, Keller said.
A working relationship
Timm Armstrong, who raises Texas Longhorns and owns the Silverheels Truck Stop in Fairplay, said he could never sit on a jury hearing Hawn's theft, animal-cruelty and criminal-mischief case.
"We work with each other," even if we don't like the other rancher, Armstrong said.
What Hawn is alleged to have done is just wrong, Armstrong said. He should have continued to work with Downare and various animal-control agencies, not shoot the animals.
Armstrong said the sentiment in South Park is strong. "One of the guys said, 'String him (Hawn) up,' and asked if he could tar and feather him."
Duke Marsh, a retired Air Force veteran who is part Kiowa Indian, looks at what happened — in part — from a Native American perspective and that of a hunter.
"Being a hunter, I only hunt and kill what I need," said Marsh. "But the way this went down was a waste of good meat. In the old days, the Kiowa killed to eat and didn't let their prey rot. To me, it (the slaughter) was the stupidest thing in the world."
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
I never realized that South Park was a real place.
It sounds like the guy who owned the Bison was the rancher. It seems like the guy who OK’d the shooting was a yuppie homeowner.
I'm guessing that one of the bison was named "Kenny"...
The guy who got others to shoot, should be in big trouble. Hunting on Federal property without the proper permission? Shooting at animals that are not on your property? Bad.
It is bad enough that the liberal cry-babies have pretty much completely poisoned California - but they have to move East to formerly nice and generally conservative states. First they have tried to overrun Colorado, and more recently - Montana.
I was reminded of this when I saw a clip of the horses-butt Montana Governor (a liberal DemocRAT...how on earth???).
Again - another reminder of the old saying - what happens in California eventually comes to YOUR neighborhood.
First they exported gangs to spread across the country.
And now they are exporting their surplus of marxist liberals to take over the rest of the country.
I guess Nikita Khrushchev’s plan of taking the US over from the inside is coming true - and his point of infection was Calinfornia and the DemocRAT party.
While I don't quite understand this law, it is the law. If he wanted the bison kept off his property it was HIS responsibility to fence them OUT - not for the owner to fence them in.
Mmmmm...fajitas.