Texas Man Faces Charges in Deaths of Bison on Colorado Ranch

Fairplay, Colo. (AP) A Texas man faces charges of animal cruelty and theft in the slaughter of 32 bison on a Colorado ranch in March.

An arrest warrant was issued yesterday for Jeffrey Scott Hawn of Austin, who controls the ranch where the bison were shot.

An Austin listing for Hawn repeatedly rang busy yesterday and his Denver attorney, Steve Csajaghy, did not immediately return a call.

Csajaghy has said the bison were damaging Hawn's property and Hawn had no choice but to get rid of them.

Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener has said the bison had wandered off the property of their owner, Monte Downare, and onto Hawn's ranch.

Denver (AP) An auction of federal and oil gas leases has netted about $4 million on nearly 29,000 acres in Colorado, down from the 175,430 acres originally up for lease.

The Bureau of Land Management offered the leases for sale Thursday in Denver in its quarterly auction.

The agency withdrew proposed leases on 144,000 acres in Southern Colorado after several protests from elected officials, landowners and conservation groups. Most of the disputed land is in the Rio Grande national forest.

The BLM is going over the analysis of the sites with the U.S. Forest Service and might offer the leases in a later auction.