| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| Buffalo
Field Campaign Week of Action 2008 |
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Talking Points for National Call-In Day
| Talking Points for Letters to
the Editor |
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| Wild
bison advocates, including Buffalo Field Campaign, plan a
rally near the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park
on Saturday, February 16, 2008.
The purpose of the rally is to draw attention to Yellowstone
National Park’s role in the harassment, capture and
slaughter of America’s last wild bison population, and
to help stop more slaughter before it begins.
The rally falls in the center of a Week of Action, February
14 – February 21, that will target various decision-makers
involved with the Interagency Bison Management Plan and draw
attention to local, regional and national media.
Schedule of events for the Week of Action is as follows:
Talking Points for National Call-in Day
Thursday, February 14, 2008
National Call-in Day to Yellowstone
Superintendent Suzanne Lewis: 307-344-2002
307-344-2013 (public affairs)
307-344-7381 (main)
Friday, February 15, 2008
National Call-in Day to Mary Bomar, Director, National Park
Service: 202-208-4621
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Rally open to everyone, West Entrance of Yellowstone National
Park.
Schedule for the rally:
8:30 –5:00 – Public demonstrations with signs,
banners, information and creative theatre
• Free information provided to all park guides; call
646-0070
• Free “Buffalo Safe Zone” signs available
to local landowners
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
National
Call-in Day to Montana State Veterinarian Marty Zaluski,
406-444-0782
Talking Points for the State Veterinarian
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
National Call-in Day to Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne,
202-208-3100
Thursday, February 21, 2008
National Call-in Day to Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer,
406-444-3111
Talking Points for Governor Schweitzer
Wild bison advocates are also encouraged to write and submit
Letters to the Editor to local, regional and national print
media.
Talking Points for Letters to
the Editor
Bison friendly letters that are printed win you
a FREE “Let Buffalo Roam” t-shirt!
Contact Buffalo Field Campaign for more information, talking
points for the national call-in days, Letter to the Editor
campaign, and on the various ways you can help stop the slaughter
of America’s last wild bison and restore them to their
native habitat:
bfc-media@wildrockies.org,
406-646-0070 or http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org.
Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field,
every day, to stop the slaughter of the wild Yellowstone buffalo.
Volunteers defend the buffalo and their native habitat and
advocate for their lasting protection. Buffalo Field Campaign
has proposed real alternatives to the current mismanagement
of Yellowstone bison that can be viewed at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/solutions.html.
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Talking
Points for National Call-In Day:
Park Service / Interior
1. The last wild bison in the U.S., a national
treasure, are in your care. You are responsible for protecting
America’s national heritage, not defending the economic
interests of Montana’s cattle industry
2. Stop killing/harassing/quarantining America’s
last wild buffalo - Withdraw from the Interagency Bison Management
Plan now – take proactive steps to secure funding for
bison habitat such as winter range and calving grounds on Gallatin
NF.
3. Dismantle the Stephens Creek bison trap
now
Montana State Veterinarian
1. There has never been a documented case of
wild bison transmitting the livestock disease brucellosis to
cattle
2. The risk of such a transmission is extremely
remote. There are no cattle on public or private lands adjacent
to the west boundrary of Yellowstone National Park at the times
of year when bison are outside the park and the bacteria can't
persist in the environment for more than a few days in the spring.
Thus there is absolutely no reason for Montana's violent intolerance
for wild bison.
3. Horse Butte is 100% cattle-free, and the
buffalo should be allowed year-round access to this critical
habitat.
4. These are the NATION'S last wild bison,
not Montana's to slaughter at will
5. Cattle are the manageable element and any
effort to reduce the already low risk of brucellosis transmission
should be directed at them.
6. If the Church Universal and Triumphant insists
on keeping cattle within the bison migration corridor on the
north side of the Park, they should be required to remove those
cattle or employ double fencing to ensure that the cattle don't
come in contact with wild bison.
Governor Schweitzer:
1. The cattle industry did not put you in office
and America’s last wild bison are not Montana’s
to destroy; they are a national treasure.
2. Montana holds the key to restoring wild
bison and must open all public lands to them year-round.
3. YNP Gateway communities bring in millions
from wildlife-related activities: $250+ million to park towns;
$86 million in wildlife viewing; $28 million in hunting
4. Cattle-based risk management is the key
to protecting Montana’s brucellosis-free status and the
health and viability of our native wildlife. Fences and vaccinations
are for cattle, not wild bison.
5. Pull out of the Interagency Bison Management
Plan, turn bison management authority to FWP, and remove the
DOL from all wild bison-related activities. |
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Talking
Points for Letters to the Editor:
For
Writing Letters to the Editor of Your Hometown/Community/Region
1. Mention you’re from the community/region
that the newspaper reaches, and you’ve left home to join
BFC and stand in defense of the last wild bison population in
the U.S.
(FOR CURRENT AND FORMER BFC FIELD VOLUNTEERS)
2. Talk briefly about your personal experiences
in the field and what it means to be here (FOR FORMER AND CURRENT
BFC FIELD VOLUNTEERS)
3. Highlight the role of Yellowstone National
Park in bison harassment and slaughter - systematic destruction
of America’s national heritage they are supposed to protect
- solely to serve the economic interests of Montana’s
cattle industry.
4. Talk about how bison are a migratory species
native to North America, but they are confined to Yellowstone
NP as if it were a zoo/ranch; Yellowstone NP is not a complete
ecosystem, in part because it lacks winter range and calving
grounds.
5. Talk briefly about brucellosis being used
as a smokescreen/excuse to control grass for the livestock industry’s
benefit.
6. Talk about the hunt, hazing (using snowmobiles,
helicopters, horses, ATVs), capture, slaughter, quarantine,
and the need for protection and habitat for this American icon
/ symbol of the untamed west / emblem of America’s shameful
past that continues today. Mention that all of this is 100%
U.S. taxpayer-funded.
7. Put emphasis on the Stephens Creek bison
trap INSIDE Yellowstone National Park. The Park uses the trap
to capture wild bison and ship them to slaughter or send orphaned
bison to a quarantine experiment facility
8. Talk about the real potential for the NPS
and Montana Department of Livestock to harass and kill upwards
of 2,000 buffalo this year
9. Ask everyone reading the letter to contact
Superintendent Suzanne Lewis and tell her to withdraw Yellowstone
from the Interagency Bison Management Plan, the taxpayer funded,
state-federal scheme responsible for these draconian practices.
Yellowstone National Park has an obligation and mandate to protect/defend
the interests of our national/natural treasures. Suzanne Lewis
should stop being a puppet for livestock interests and protect
the last wild bison of this nation.
10. OTHER POINTS
TO CONSIDER:
• In 2005-2006 Yellowstone NP captured and killed over
900 of America’s last wild buffalo: 849 shipped to slaughter;
57 calves sent to a government quarantine research facility.
• Yellowstone is a World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve,
important globally with millions of visitors coming every year
from everywhere
• Montana cattle politics dictate the fate of native wildlife
• The bison that inhabit Yellowstone are the last genetically
intact (pure Bison bison) left in the U.S. (all others are contaminated
with cattle genes)
• These bison are behaviorally unique as they still follow
the instinct to migrate
• Wild bison number fewer than 4,600 (compared to the
30-70 million that once spanned the continent) and are politically
confined to the ecologically meaningless boundaries of Yellowstone,
or die leaving
• Wild bison are ecologically extinct everywhere outside
of Yellowstone NP
• Don’t call them “Yellowstone” buffalo
– they are American bison/buffalo, not “park”
animals |
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| Talking
Points for National Call-In Day | Talking
Points for Letters to the Editor |
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