| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 11/26/03 |
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| Wandering
bull bison killed near Yellowstone
By
MIKE STARK, Gazette Wyoming Bureau, November 26, 2003
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A
bull bison was shot and killed Tuesday outside Yellowstone
National Park when government agents were unable to capture
it or force it to stay within the park's boundaries.
The bull had wandered out of Yellowstone at least a dozen
times this fall, said Karen Cooper, a spokeswoman for
the Montana Department of Livestock.
"The bison would not stay within the park boundary,"
Cooper said.
Agents from Yellowstone, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and
Parks Department, and the livestock department tried to
haze the bison into a capture facility Tuesday morning
outside the western edge of the park.
If the bison had been captured, it would have been sent
to slaughter. Because the animal couldn't be captured,
agents at the scene decided to shoot it. Cooper said three
shots were fired - "probably by Department of Livestock,"
she said - and the bison died on private property in the
Duck Creek area outside West Yellowstone.
The head, meat and hide will be donated to a tribal organization,
she said.
A Yellowstone bison was fatally shot for the same reason
about one year ago.
The shooting is part of a controversial plan aimed at
keeping Yellowstone's bison away from livestock outside
the park.
Livestock officials and government agencies are concerned
that bison wandering out of Yellowstone could transmit
brucellosis to livestock in the area.
A plan signed by state and federal governments allows
bison to be hazed back into Yellowstone. Those that can't
be captured or guided back into Yellowstone, like the
bull on Tuesday, can be subject to "lethal measures,"
Cooper said.
Members of the Buffalo Field Campaign, which has opposed
the policy and monitored hazing and capturing operations
in the winter, said the bison was shot five times and
that, according to a witness, the animal was "writhing
in pain the whole time."
They also said the bison was returning to Yellowstone
when it was shot and died about 50 yards from the park
boundary. Cooper said she didn't know exactly how far
away the bison was from Yellowstone when it died.
BFC officials also pointed out that male bison are considered
to be at low risk of transmitting brucellosis and that
there's never been a documented case of bison spreading
the disease to cattle. "But low risk is not no risk,"
Cooper responded.
Tuesday's operation was the first time this fall that
a bison had to be killed for wandering out of Yellowstone.
In October and November, government officials have successfully
hazed bison back into Yellowstone seven times, Cooper
said. All of the incidents were near the park's western
border.
Last year, hundreds of bison were captured as the neared
the northern border of Yellowstone in search of better
grazing at lower elevations. In all, more than 200 animals
were sent to slaughter. The bison policy has recently
become the focus of congressional legislation. Earlier
this month, Reps. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Charles
Bass, R-N.H., introduced a bill that would outlaw the
hazing and killing of bison that leave Yellowstone.
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