West Yellowstone, MT- On Sunday, April 16, the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) continued its policy of harassing bison that migrate into Montana from Yellowstone National Park. DOL agent Shane Grube hazed more than sixty bison from the Gallatin National Forest into Yellowstone. The operations took place along the Madison River.

During the past several weeks more than a hundred buffalo have migrated from the park into Montana Bison move from the park's higher elevations to Horse Butte every April. The Butte, with its early green-up, is a favorite calving and feeding ground for bison in the spring.

One calf, born just hours before a DOL hazing operation on Thursday, April 7, died only three days later. Although the cause of the calf's death is not known, the hazing operation separated the calf and its mother from the rest of the herd and stressed the animal during its first hours of life. During each of the hazing operations on April 6, 13, and 16, the DOL hazed pregnant females with snowmobiles, ATVs, and cracker rounds fired from shotguns. The animals were pushed through thick trees beside the Madison and over guardrails along Highway 191.

Such intense stress, so late in the gestation period, can induce miscarriages and cause bison to abort their calves. According to a recent DOL press release, such operations are conducted "to ensure the health safety of Montana's livestock and citizens." Bison, say the DOL, "present a danger to the Montana livestock industry and a health risk to humans."

"The DOL is always talking about how much of a threat brucellosis is to livestock and humans," said BFC campaign coordinator Mike Mease, "but there are no cattle in the area until June 15 and there are only a handful of cases of undulant fever reported in the US in a single year."

There has never been a documented case of brucellosis transmission from wild buffalo to livestock. The bacteria dies within four hours of exposure to sunlight. Undulant fever, the human form of brucellosis, is so inconsequential that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) doesn not require reporting of the condition. Of the few cases contracted each year, the majority result from hunters dressing elk, which also carry brucellosis. Hazing causes buffalo unnessesary stress and is often inefectual, as the animals return to their original positons within hours of being chased into the park.

In an interview conducted with the BFC, DOL agent Shane Grube said, "They go all the way out then we bring them all the way back, then they go all the way out and we bring them all the way back."

Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers defend the buffalo on their traditional habitat and advocate for their protection. BFC is the only group working in the field every day to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild buffalo.

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