| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
|
| News
Article 2/08/04 |
 |
| |
|
|
| Buffalo
soldiers: Local group determined to protect Yellowstone
bison
By John O'Connell - Journal Writer
Idaho State Journal
2/08/04
|
YELLOWSTONE
NATIONAL PARK - Another bison was put down Thursday
morning, this time on private land north of Gardiner,
Mont.To Ted Fellman, it's one more casualty in a senseless
slaughter of a majestic animal which symbolizes how America
once was.According to the five state and federal agencies
which administer Greater Yellowstone's bison management
program, it's sometimes necessary to kill bison to prevent
the transfer of a disease called brucellosis from bison
to cattle.Fellman notes that there's never been a documented
case of bison infecting cattle with brucellosis, a disease
which causes infected animals to abort their young.Yet
Fellman, a spokesman for the Buffalo Field Campaign, said
the Montana Department of Livestock, the National Park
Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks use the disease as
an excuse to kill bison."It's a turf battle between
the livestock industry and wildlife interests," Fellman
said. "They see it as wildlife eating their grass
on public lands. It's an absurdly ridiculous concept that
bison can spread brucellosis to cattle."On Feb. 14,
eight Idaho State University students will join the Buffalo
Field Campaign, a grassroots organization formed to defend
the bison after the winter of 1996-1997, when about 1,200
bison were killed.ISU senior Jamie Dewey, facilitator
of Student Action Volunteers for the Environment, and
other students in the organization planned the upcoming
trip to Yellowstone to attend a rally in support of a
recent federal court ruling which would phase out snowmobiling
in Yellowstone.
They said they will join the Buffalo Field Campaign because
they will be in the park anyway.Their efforts with the
campaign will not be affiliated with the club for liability
reasons.The Buffalo Field Campaign gets volunteers from
throughout the world to help patrol, and note buffalo
migration routes and videotape government-sponsored buffalo
killings."It seems surprising to me that these bison
can't graze on their native habitat, and cattle have more
of a right to do that," Dewey said.The reason bison
haven't yet infected cattle in Greater Yellowstone could
be because of successful management, according to Karen
Cooper, public information officer with the Montana Department
of Livestock.Cooper said about 40 to 50 percent of bison
are infected with brucellosis, and in experiments in which
infected bison were placed in pens with cattle, they did
transmit the disease."What needs to happen is the
disease needs to be eliminated from the bison in the Greater
Yellowstone area," Cooper said. "We have a high
population of bison, one of the highest we've had in years,
and we've maintained a brucellosis free status. So in
those terms, this plan is working."Idaho risked losing
its brucellosis-free status in April 2002, when an infected
Yellowstone elk transmitted brucellosis to cattle. Idaho
isolated and destroyed the elk herd in time.An elk also
transmitted brucellosis to cattle in Wyoming in November
2003. Wyoming should know within the next few weeks if
it will lose its brucellosis-free status, Cooper said.Cheryl
Matthews, a spokeswoman for Yellowstone National Park,
said the management plan also protects public safety and
preserves "a viable population of Yellowstone bison."She
said the bison population is now estimated at 4,200, and
whenever it exceeds 3,000, officials are allowed to kill
bison without testing for brucellosis. Nonetheless, she
said the agencies continue to drive bison back into Yellowstone
before using killings as an option."Our first mode
of operation is to move bison back into the park,"
Matthews said. "We haven't even started capturing.
We've already hazed (driven buffalo back into the park)
three times."Last year, 1,600 bison were returned
to the park. The previous year, 1,000 bison were moved
back into the park.Fellman said people from several junior
high, high school, college and environmental groups volunteer
to help his organization patrol. Although he admits government
officials are breaking no laws, he believes the tapes
shock the public and gain support for his cause.He said
public support is especially crucial now that the U.S.
House of Representatives is considering the Yellowstone
Bison Preservation Bill, which would end the practice
of killing bison to limit the spreading of disease.Rep.
Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, strongly opposes the bill, which
he considers "another example of Easterners trying
to dictate the way of life of Westerners," his spokeswoman
Nikki Watts said.In last March alone, Fellman said the
management plan was responsible for 231 deaths of bison
found within park boundaries."They spend the entire
winter wasting tax dollars, chasing and killing buffalo,
and it disrupts the ecosystem when they're out there in
their helicopters and their ATVs," he said, adding
the management plan has a $1 million budget.Fellman said
cattle don't graze on land where they could come in contact
with bison during periods when bison could be considered
contagious for brucellosis. He said cattle have also been
removed from certain areas around the park where bison
continue to be captured and killed.Three pens baited with
hay are set up in or near Yellowstone to capture bison."Cattle
don't show up in areas where you may find aborted bison
fetuses," said Marv Hoyt, Idaho director of the Greater
Yellowstone Coalition. "It's more than a month before
cattle could show up, then it's no longer viable."What
is brucellosis? Brucellosis is transmitted through contaminated
and untreated milk and milk products and by direct contact
with infected animals, animal carcasses, and abortion
materials. Mortality from brucellosis is rare.
Top
of Page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
