Man charged with slaughtering bison

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DENVER (Reuters) — A businessman has been charged with animal cruelty for the slaughter of 32 bison near his Colorado ranch after what prosecutors said was a dispute with a neighboring rancher.

Jeffrey Scott Hawn, 44, the CEO of privately held software company Attachmate Corp, is charged with aggravated animal cruelty, theft and criminal mischief, a spokeswoman for the Park County District Attorney said Thursday.

According to court papers, the bison were killed after Hawn failed to resolve a dispute with a neighboring rancher whose bison herd Hawn claimed trampled fences and caused damage to his property.

Hawn is accused of shooting two bison himself and hiring hunters to shoot the others. His Seattle-based company declined to comment on the charges.

The charges follow the discovery in March of 32 dead bison on a mountain ranch about 85 miles southwest of Denver. Seven of them were pregnant. Police first thought they were shot in an illegal hunt.

Colorado is home to about 14,000 bison. Sacred to American Indians and a symbol of the American West, bison herds once numbered in the millions before they were hunted to near extinction in the 19th century.