Man Says He Didn’t Mean To Kill Bison Judge Asked To Drop Charges In Shooting Deaths Of Buffalo

Roland Whitman testified Friday that he did not mean to kill two Yellowstone National Park buffalo near his home last January, but fired his 12-gauge shotgun only to drive them away.

“If I had wanted to kill them I would have used a rifle,” the 82-year-old former outfitter testified. “I guess I got too close.”

One bison was killed, and wardens had to finish off the other.

Prosecutor Cathy Truman scoffed at Whitman’s claim that he shot the huge animals with duck loads from 110 feet.

“You expect us to believe you killed a bison with a shotgun from 110 feet?” Truman asked.

She noted that game wardens found an empty shell 12 feet from one carcass. Whitman insisted he paced off the distance.

“That’s the God Almighty truth,” Whitman said.

He said he often chased bison from his property.

“I’d shoot ‘em in the hind end with a shotgun. Firecrackers. Anything I’ve got to use on them,” he said.

Whitman’s lawyer asked Justice of the Peace Scott Wyckman to dismiss the charges. Wyckman said he will rule next week.

Whitman has defied state wildlife officials for years by feeding elk near is home, but this year the Legislature banned such feeding grounds. He says the elk would starve, otherwise, but the department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks says the feeding disrupts migration patterns and spreads diseases such as brucellosis.

And, they say, the feed attracts the bison to West Yellowstone. Whitman does not like to feed the bison, which he says can survive on their own.

Bison often came into his yard, Whitman said, scaring his horse, damaging trees and fences and forcing his grandchildren to play inside. On the day he killed the bison, the animals had broken through a fence and chased his horse until it was covered with frozen lather.

“It looked like a white horse,” he said.

Steve Lewis, regional supervisor for the wildlife department, testified that even though wardens had warned Whitman they would not kill bison on the feedground, they would have killed bison threatening property or human safety at Whitman’s home, which is more than a mile from the feedground.