| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 5/17/06 |
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| Positive
brucellosis test indicates exposure, not infection
Letter to the Editor, Bozeman Daily Chronicle
5/17/06 |
AP
reporter Becky Bohrer has misinformed your readers. Reporting
that 44 percent of slaughtered Yellowstone bison "had"
brucellosis is completely false. The brucellosis blood
tests only determine the presence of antibodies - exposure,
not infection. If brucellosis was truly the issue
(it is not) and had the agencies truly wanted to find
infection, they would have performed culture tests.
The slaughtered members of America's
last wild bison herd should still be alive and more
than half would be if the buffalo were tested prior
to slaughter. The Park Service and state Department of
Livestock have shamefully stolen this living heritage
and spun the truth to ensure the cattle industry maintains
a stronghold on our public lands.
Further, after killing nearly 1,000
wild buffalo, Yellowstone officials captured 300 more
and confined them in the Stephens Creek bison trap
for nearly a month during calving season. Confining and
stressing the animals during a time when transmission
is possible is a sure-fire way to increase the risk. The
imprisoned bison were not tested before being released.
Wild bison have never transmitted
brucellosis to cattle. Bulls, yearlings, and non-pregnant
buffalo cannot transmit the disease, while pregnant
buffalo pose only a "theoretical" risk.
Meanwhile, where brucellosis transmissions have occurred
- Wyoming and Idaho - it was due to transmissions from
elk that utilize state and federal feedgrounds. Both states
have lost their brucellosisfree status, yet neither has
any desire to shut the feedgrounds down, nor are they
suffering the grave economic consequences that livestock
interests whine about. State and federal actions demonstrate
that the war against bison is about grass, not disease.
The only sensible thing to come of the injustice to bison is
Gov. Brian Schweitzer's attempts at cattle-based risk
management. Removing cattle from the winter range of native
bison is an applaudable, real, first-step solution.
Stephany Seay
West Yellowstone
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