| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 3/17/04 |
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| Bison
capture facility filling up
By Scott McMillion
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Staff Writer
March 17, 2004
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Yellowstone
National Park's bison pens are likely to reach capacity
this week, which means trapped animals will be shipped
to slaughter whether they have brucellosis or not.
"Once the holding capacity has been reached at that
facility, all remaining bison will be shipped to slaughter
without testing," park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews
said Tuesday.
Bison continue to move toward the park's northern boundary,
she added.
Until this point, the National Park Service has been capturing
bison in its trap northwest of Gardiner, then testing
them for brucellosis.
Those that test negative for the disease are being held
until spring.
Those testing positive are being shipped to slaughter.
However, the pens can only hold about 200 animals. There
are 174 negative-testing animals there now, with 100 more
awaiting testing.
Somewhere around half of them will likely test negative,
which will fill the stoutly-fenced pastures at least to
capacity.
Park scientists had earlier estimated the holding capacity
at 125 animals. However, that has been increased by the
addition of some stronger fences and the decision not
to hold mature bulls, which can become cantankerous and
destroy all kinds of things.
The program is in accordance with a joint state/federal
plan meant to reduce the threat of brucellosis spreading
to cattle. The Montana Department of Livestock and other
agencies help implement the plan.
But it doesn't sit well with everybody.
Buffalo Field Campaign, a protest group, has taken to
calling the park "Yellowstone National Ranch."
"With rangers luring buffalo into traps with trails
of hay, handing them over to livestock inspectors who
ship them to slaughter, and inoculating them with cattle
vaccines and ear tagging them, we should start calling
it Yellowstone National Ranch," said BFC's Dan Brister.
So far this winter, Yellowstone has shipped 182 bison
to slaughter, Matthews said.
Of the 174 now in the pen, calves and non-pregnant yearlings
are being vaccinated for the disease, a first in the park.
About half the park's 4,200 bison test positive for exposure
to the disease, but a case of transmitting it from bison
to cattle in the wild has never been documented.
Still, avoiding the disease is important to cattle ranchers.
The state has been brucellosis free since 1985, after
many years of work and millions of dollars in expense.
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