| GARDINER,
MONTANA. This morning USDA APHIS officials shipped 48
of 96 bison held in the Corwin Springs quarantine facility
to slaughter, bringing to 903 the number of buffalo
killed as a result of Park Service operations since
January and to 1,011 the total number killed by management
actions and hunters. More buffalo were killed this winter/spring
than during any year since 1996-1997, when 1,084 buffalo
were killed. 48 bison are still confined in the Corwin
Springs quarantine pen north of Gardiner.
"Wild buffalo should be revered and respected,
not killed and caged so cattle can monopolize the landscape,"
said Dan Brister of the Buffalo Field Campaign. "The
quarantine experiment, in which buffalo are domesticated
for years on end and half slaughtered, is nothing more
than a taxpayer funded bison ranch," he said.
None of the adult bison slaughtered by the Park Service
this year were first tested for brucellosis. Fear that
bison may transmit brucellosis to cattle is the purported
justification for the aggressive management of wild
buffalo by state and federal agencies. Yet there has
never been a documented case of wild bison transmitting
brucellosis to livestock, even in the years before the
current plan was enacted.
"The Yellowstone buffalo are national treasures,
symbols of America's wild and untamed spirit,"
said Stephany Seay of the Buffalo Field Campaign. "Rather
than spending time and resources quarantining and slaughtering
them, the Park Service should be safeguarding habitat
and protecting the buffalo under their care."
The Yellowstone bison herd is America's only continuously
wild herd. Wild bison are a migratory species native
to North America and once spanned the continent, numbering
an estimated 30 to 50 million.
Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in
the field, everyday, to stop the slaughter of the wild
Yellowstone buffalo. Volunteers defend the buffalo on
their native habitat and advocate for their protection.
BFC video footage and photos are available upon request
and may be viewed at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org.
Total Yellowstone Buffalo Killed 2005-2006: 1010
Slaughtered by Montana Department of Livestock (DOL):
50
Shot by Montana Department of Livestock (DOL): 7
Drowned During DOL Hazing Operation: 2
Slaughtered by Yellowstone National Park: 903
Shot by Yellowstone National Park: 1
Died in Confinement in Yellowstone National Park:
3
Shot by Montana Hunters: 45
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