Who beheaded ‘our pet’ bison? North Texas ranch family wants answers to mystery
Shawn Neu and his wife, Christy, have been raising bison for over a year now. At the end of the day, when the North Texas couple would feed and watch the animals, it was a “stress reliever,” Shawn Neu said.
But the week of Thanksgiving, the couple was shocked when one of their 20 bison was shot, killed and beheaded on the family’s ranch near County Road 301 and FM 3108, south of Lindsay.
They called her Louisiana, which is where she came from, Shawn Neu said in a conversation with the Star-Telegram.
Early Monday, Nov. 24, about 3:30 a.m., their dogs were barking, and the family thinks the shooting might have happened around that time, he said.
The couple had seen a bunch of beer cans and trash around their fence, and as they were cleaning up on Wednesday, Nov. 26, they discovered that Louisiana was killed and beheaded.
“It was very dramatic for my wife. I was very upset at that point,” Neu said. “I couldn’t believe somebody would do that.”
Neu said they think that the bison, who was mother to a calf, was shot from the county road and multiple people might be involved.
“They were well-prepared on what they intended on doing, because they had some kind of saw to be able to cut her head completely off ... sever it off and cut through the back part of her spine to cut the bone and to take her head off,” Neu said.
The couple had a barbed wire fence on that side of the property, and it appears to them that the poachers climbed through the fence after they shot the bison, he said.
“I don’t think anybody did it as something personal against me or my wife. I really feel that somebody came out just to shoot a bison to be able to take the head, because there’s not very many people in Cooke County that raise them,” he said.
Neu said it would be in the suspects’ best interest to surrender or for anyone with information to come forward. He said they may show some grace if the person turns themselves in. “But if we have to come hunt down the person and find the people that did this, we’re going to take it to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
After this incident, Neu advised bison owners who don’t have cameras in remote areas where they raise their animals to invest in surveillance cameras to protect their herd.
“It would be somebody who wants to hunt down an animal like this to have a prize trophy on the wall, something to brag about,” he said. “They have game ranches for that kind of sport, that kind of activity. Go pay money to an exotic game ranch and shoot animals to have them hanging on your wall, but not somebody’s livestock. That’s what they are to us here in the state of Texas — our pets, our livestock.”
The American bison is the national mammal of the United States, and they are “majestic animals,” Neu said.
$4,000 reward offered
The Texas Bison Association and law enforcement are asking for the public’s help to find whoever is responsible for shooting and decapitating the bison, authorities have said.
“I’ve been the sheriff for five years and we’ve never had something like this occur,” Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington said of the disturbing animal cruelty case.
The bison had a bullet hole entry and exit wound through her lungs and a silver RFID tag in her right ear. Whoever killed the animal cut off her head and left her carcass behind, authorities said.
Anyone with information about this shooting is asked to contact the property owners, Shawn and Christy Neu, at 940-902-9742 or the Cooke County Sheriff’s Department at 940-665-3471. Those wishing to remain anonymous may submit tips via email at tips@co.cooke.tx.us
A $4,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to the arrest of those responsible, the Cooke County Sheriff’s Office said.