3 Colo. men banned from hunting amid Utah poaching

PRICE — Three Colorado men have been fined and banned from hunting in Utah after a doe and buck were killed illegally last fall.

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources says Ostan Ware, Ryan Hagin and Kody Kean didn’t have proper permits for either animal. Officials say the men posted pictures of the dead deer online, and left the doe to rot.

A tipster calling the state’s Turn-in-a-Poacher hotline reported the incident, which wardens say happened in November about three miles away from the Colorado border in Utah’s Book Cliffs.

The three pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of wanton destruction of protected wildlife or aiding in the crime.

Ware and Hagin are suspended from big game hunting in Utah and 37 other states for 10 years. Kean is suspended for five years.