| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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Article 5/10/06 |
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| Let's
get consistent on brucellosis policies
OUR OPINION- Bozeman Daily Chronicle
5/10/06
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The
layman who encounters the issue of brucellosis in
Montana wildlife is likely to come away with his head
spinning. Confusion reigns and not only on the technical
aspects of the disease. Brucellosis seems to be driving
public policy in highly contradictory ways.
Brucellosis is a disease that can
cause domestic cattle to abort their young. As such, livestock
growers understandably fear the disease and in fact spent
years and millions of dollars eradicating brucellosis from
Montana cattle. A state's loss of brucellosisfree status
can cause expensive problems for the livestock industry.
That has happened in Idaho and Wyoming.
Driven by brucellosis fears, the
Montana Department of Livestock successfully lobbied to
attain management control bison that roam outside
over Yellowstone National Park. The DOL has conducted
controversial hazing, capture and slaughter policies on
the bison that continue to garner bad national publicity
for the state.
Juxtapose this with the fact that a
small but verifiable percentage of Montana's elk are also
infected with brucellosis, and there appears to be a stark
disconnect between how the two species of wildlife are
managed.
There has never been a case of a bison infecting
domestic livestock in the field, and yet the haze, capture,
slaughter policies persist. Meanwhile, the threat of brucellosis
infected elk is tolerated on public lands with livestock
grazing allotments, as well as on private land, even though
elk are blamed for infecting cattle in Idaho and Wyoming.
Add to this the fact that the results
of field testing for brucellosis in wildlife can
be confusing at best. Positive test results can indicate
exposure to the disease, but not necessarily active infection.
And other, less serious bacterial infections can produce
false-positive results in some field tests.
Montana conducted its first - although
limited - public bison hunt in many years this past
winter, heralding a welcome return to some semblance of
consistency with other wildlife management policies. And
Gov. Brian Schweitzer has expressed the hope of expanding
the hunt in years to come.
Bison will never roam the Plains
in great numbers; they simply represent too great a conflict
with human activities. But, whatever policy we ultimately
adopt for the management of these animals should be driven
by consistent, sound wildlife management policies, and
not the disease-driven policy that is contradictory, confusing
and giving Montana an undeserved bad name on the national
stage.
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