The hypocrisy of killing Buffalo while the elk roam freely

This week we took a trip down to the Madison Valley. Over 6000 elk were roaming freely all over cattle ranch land and some public lands.

With the disease brucellosis being the main argument for not allowing bison to roam free in Montana, it was interesting to see that elk - who have transmitted brucellosis to cattle - on the land, doesn’t seem to be a problem.

It has been documented numerous times that elk have transferred the disease to cows but there isn't a single documentation of wild bison transferring brucellosis to domestic cattle.

The hypocrisy is glaring.

Over 6000 elk roam freely in Madison Valley
Photo by BFC Intern Leo Vescolani

The first four Buffalo were shot in Gardiner this past week.

Then, about a week later a herd of eight were gunned down at Beattie Gulch.

This herd of eight was made up of alarmingly young bison. A healthy herd is a mixed herd — the lead matriarch, other mature females, immature bulls, yearlings, and calves. As bulls age out, they naturally separate and form bachelor groups.

The fact that these eight were so young shows just how deeply the current management plan disrupts and damages the natural dynamics of these animals. A herd still on the cusp of fully maturing is a direct symptom of MIS-management.

When we capture and kill without regard for who is taken — male or female, the largest one, heavily pregnant, or killing a mother with a calf still at her side — it fractures the herd in profound ways.

These decisions ripple through generations.

Watch BFC's "Why elk and not Buffalo?"
video by BFC Interns Roshan Sell & Swetha Choodamani

The IBMP has no plan

Right now, the Interagency Bison Management Plan, or IBMP, functions like a kill-all-to-meet-the-quota system, with no meaningful scientific grounding and little integrity toward the beings we share this landscape with. The IBMP uses hunting and capture for slaughter (with those who test negative for Brucellosis left in small pens for quarantine and removal) as the main tools used to meet these absurd quotas year after year.

Last year over 868 Buffalo were captured by the U.S. Park Service and Yellowstone National Park. Most were shipped to slaughter and about 60 remain in the trap from last year's capture.

To lure the Buffalo into the trap, hay is placed out and with other bison already there, it makes visiting their relatives another way to capture the unsuspecting victims. We call this visitors day at the penitentiary.

Yellowstone National Park runs our last wild bison into a squeeze shoot where they are poked and prodded, then separated into 3 pens. Mothers and calves are torn apart into 2 pens and males into the third. The young ones cry to their mothers. Most are loaded up in horse trailers and shipped up to 4 hours to the slaughter houses. The ones that pass the test will live a life of domestication, never to live wild again.

Caging wild animals is never a good idea. Once captured in the outer pen all natural bison behavior goes out the window and behaviors of distressed animals begin. Panic rules the day, causing injury and sometimes death. A bison died while in custody last year but the reason for this death has yet to be released.

Some Good News

As sad as this is, the good news is that the lack of winter has kept the major herds back in the park. With grass exposed all the way to Blacktail the Buffalo have no reason to migrate down to Gardiner.

This year, grasses are still available up in the mountains, the memory of what happened to the Buffalo below persists, and with over 850 Bison never returning last year, appears to make the journey not worth it.

Take Action!

It is the time to let the Buffalo roam this continent they call home. In the Madison Valley alone, there are tens of thousands of acres split between private and public land where Buffalo would love to access from West Yellowstone.

If you agree, call Yellowstone National Park and MT Governor Gianforte and tell them to manage wild bison like wild elk!