SAGUACHE COUNTY, Colo. — Officers with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) are seeking the public's help identifying who is responsible for the illegal killing of a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in Saguache County.
CPW said the poached ram was found off Saguache County Road 38FF in the Cabin Draw area along Middle Creek.
A person reported the dead animal on Nov. 11 around 1:20 p.m. Two district wildlife managers responded and found that the ram had been shot and left about 200 yards off the county road. This area falls within Sheep Hunting Unit 10 (Game Management Unit 681).
The district wildlife managers used a CPW K-9 to determine that the ram had been shot that same day and within that immediate area.
“This bighorn was shot and left there with nothing removed from it,” said District Wildlife Manager William Miedema. “There is a single bighorn ram hunting license available in S-10 and neighboring S-55, but my legal hunter for this area had already harvested a ram this year and the season dates were Sept. 2 through Oct. 2.”
The sheep's meat was spoiled by the time CPW arrived, so they were not able to donate it.
“This is wanton waste," Miedema said.
In Colorado, willful destruction of a big game animal is a felony. If a person is convicted, the punishment ranges, but can include a lifetime suspension of hunting and fishing privileges, jail time and fines up to $100,000.
Anybody with information on this poaching case is asked to contact Miedema at 719-850-6364 or william.miedema@state.co.us. To provide information anonymously, contact Operation Game Thief at 877-265-6648 or game.thief@state.co.us. In flagrant cases, a reward up to $1,000 is possible.
In October 2024, Denver7 took a deep dive into bighorn sheep health across Colorado. This came after a year of poor herd health for the animals, and we checked in to see how they were fairing as of last fall. Read that story here, or watch our report below.
In a similar case to this illegal killing, CPW announced in early October that it was seeking information about four poached elk in Las Animas County. The elk were illegally shot on Sept. 13, 26 and 27, according to CPW, near Stonewall and Picketwire. Click here for that story.
CPW has taken 2,400 reports of poaching in the state since 1981, which resulted in 700 convictions. The total fines for those cases was about $600,000.
