| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 1/06/05 |
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| Commission
agrees to consider canceling hunt, drawing postponed
By Bob Anez, Associated Press, Billings Gazette
1/06/05 |
HELENA-
Montana's wildlife commission agreed Thursday to consider
canceling the state's controversial bison hunt set to
start next week, and postponed the drawing for 10 bison
licenses that was scheduled for Friday.
The 4-1 decision was made by a commission that included
three members appointed just hours earlier by new Gov.
Brian Schweitzer, who said Wednesday he wanted to see
the hunt canceled because of the potential for a “public
relations nightmare” for the state.
The Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission plans to meet
Monday to make a decision on the fate of what would be
Montana's first hunt of bison that leave Yellowstone National
Park in more than a decade.
The hunts were canceled in 1991 after a barrage of protests
and bad publicity. Revival of hunting, authorized by the
2003 Legislature, was approved by the previous commission
last month.
More than 8,000 people have paid $3 apiece to apply for
the licenses that would be used in the monthlong season
set to begin Jan. 15. A drawing that had been scheduled
for Friday would determine who would get the licenses
- priced at $75 for residents and $750 for out-of-staters.
Two members of the commission voiced opposition Thursday
to the hunt moving forward.
Tim Mulligan, commissioner from Whitehall and the lone
opponent of the hunt last month, said the plan would generate
so much bad publicity for the state that it would do more
harm than good in efforts to manage the bison that migrate
from the park each winter in search of forage.
“There would be a firestorm that could set back
the opportunity to hunt bison in Montana,” he said,
echoing Schweitzer's concerns.
Shane Colton of Billings, one of Schweitzer's appointees,
said he does not object to hunting bison as they leave
the park, but “this hunt seems more symbolic than
anything.”
The other new members, Steve Doherty of Great Falls and
Vic Workman of Whitefish, did not state their position
on a hunt. However, Schweitzer had said Wednesday he could
stop the hunt by appointing people to the commission who
share his view.
Commissioner John Brenden of Scobey, who voted for the
hunt last month, assailed fellow members for caving in
to “blackmail” from groups opposed to the
hunting of Yellowstone bison, some of whom have threatened
to organize a boycott of Montana if the shooting occurs.
“I don't think that it would look good for the new
governor, who touted his experiences of hunting and fishing
in the press, to cave in to some fringe groups,”
Brenden, a longtime Republican, said of the Democrat Schweitzer.
“We will be hurt in the minds and eyes of a lot
of Montana and out-of-state sportsmen.”
In an interview, Schweitzer rejected that argument, saying,
“Most sports people recognize you have to have a
fair-chase hunt.”
He said he wants bison to be hunted like other wildlife,
after they have a greater range established on which to
roam in Montana, and that could come as early as 2006.
“There will be a significant hunt,” Schweitzer
said. “There's going to be a hunt next year. I just
don't want a black-eye hunt. I don't think we should have
the equivalent of shooting refrigerators.”
Mulligan said he, too, is concerned about a repeat of
confrontations between bison-protection activists and
hunters in the field during the previous hunts.
“We're not caving in to anyone,” he said.
“We may be putting 10 hunters into a very difficult
situation and a very public situation that then may damage
our opportunity to hunt.”
The previous bison hunts were more orchestrated events
in which game wardens arranged to escort a hunter to where
a bison stood. This year's hunt has been called more conventional,
with hunters striking out on their own, Hagener explained.
Advocates of hunting see it as another management tool
for controlling bison, many of which are infected with
brucellosis. Ranchers fear the disease, which causes cows
to abort, could be transmitted from bison to cattle, although
there are no documented cases of that happening in the
wild.
Schweitzer said Wednesday that killing 10 bison will do
nothing to stem the growing Yellowstone herd, which has
more than doubled to beyond 4,000 in the past six years.
Brenden said he was worried that canceling the hunt for
this year could jeopardize the livestock industry. “We
can't afford to take chances ... to have any more potential
for entertaining brucellosis into Montana,” he said.
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