West Yellowstone, MT- Early this morning, a Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) agent, Shane Grube, attempted to haze a bull buffalo who has been grazing for the past week on the south side of the Madison River. The buffalo fled, taking refuge in nearby trees. It was the DOL's third unsuccessful attempt to haze the animal in the past week.

It is unclear whether the DOL agent intended to capture the buffalo or haze him back to the park. Hazing buffalo causes unnecessary stress and taxes the crucial energy reserves they need to survive the winter. Later in the day, law enforcement officials with the Gallatin County Sheriff's Department, the Montana Highway Patrol, and the US Forest Service accompanied Grube to the scene of this morning's hazing and confiscated video footage of the operation shot by Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) volunteers .

"The Buffalo Field Campaign formed to document this issue and to educate the American people about the senseless slaughter of the Yellowstone buffalo. This illegal confiscation of our documentation is unacceptable and unconstitutional," stated BFC spokesperson Michael Mease.

Montana insists that buffalo pose a threat to the brucellosis-free status of the state's cattle industry. Governor Racicot and the DOL have recently come under fire from federal agencies for their mismanagement of the Yellowstone herd. Although there has never been a documented case of brucellosis being transmitted from wild buffalo to livestock, the state maintains a zero-tolerance policy for buffalo migrating into Montana from Yellowstone National Park. Montana's position is neither supported by science nor endorsed by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the federal body responsible for maintaining the state's brucellosis-free status.

"We don't feel there's a need to kill every bison that comes out of the park," said APHIS spokesperson Patrick Collins. Because bulls cannot transmit the disease, APHIS considers them "low risk" and says their presence in the state will not jeopardize Montana's brucellosis-free status. Of the ninety buffalo shipped to slaughter last winter, forty-two were bulls. These animals were killed in the name of protecting cattle, who do not return to the area until June 15.

"The only way this bull could transmit brucellosis to cattle is by mating with a cow, something that doesn't occur under natural conditions. Montana is wasting public money on the unnecessary harassment of this bull," said BFC spokesperson Tiffany Brown.

In the past three winters almost 2000 Yellowstone buffalo have been killed under the current management plan. The Yellowstone herd is the only herd descended from continuously wild buffalo in this country.

Video footage and still photos available upon request

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