| Gardiner,
MT - Park rangers baited and hazed over 150
of America's last wild buffalo into the Stephens Creek
trap inside Yellowstone National Park yesterday &
today. In the past three weeks, the National Park Service
(NPS) has captured 356 buffalo under pressure from the
Montana livestock industry. Since November 24, 2003
the Park Service and the Montana Department of Livestock
already killed 165 Yellowstone buffalo prior to Sunday's
operation.
"Buffalo harassment is becoming a daily routine
in Yellowstone," said Dan Brister of the Montana-based
Buffalo Field Campaign. "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."
According to a press release issued by the park, the
current slaughter is designed to keep buffalo "away
from cattle grazing adjacent to the Park." The
irony is the closest livestock are located on the Royal
Teton Ranch (RTR), whose owners received more than 13
million tax dollars in 1998 for land and conservation
easements intended to provide winter range for native
buffalo.
Yellowstone is the only place in America continuously
occupied by native buffalo. The park provided sanctuary
to 23 individuals that survived the 19th century near-extinction.
The Yellowstone herd is the largest remaining population
of genetically pure bison. Slaughtering bison is in
direct contradiction with the Park Service's mandate
to protect park resources unimpaired for future generations.
The Park Service is currently domesticating another
154 buffalo that tested negative for exposure to brucellosis
in the same crowded buffalo trap. Calf and yearling
bison being held were vaccinated with RB51 brucellosis
vaccine and ear tagged. Peer reviewed scientific studies
have concluded that RB51 offers no significant protection
for brucellosis to bison. There has never been a documented
case of brucellosis being transmitted from wild buffalo
to livestock. In the past ten years the Montana Department
of Livestock (DOL) and NPS have slaughtered 2,666 buffalo
in and around Yellowstone National Park. A year ago
the Park Service sent 231 buffalo to slaughter without
even testing them for brucellosis. Yellowstone buffalo
slaughter is slated
to cost tax-payers nearly $3 million a year until 2015.
The slaughter has prompted members of Congress to introduce
the Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act (H.R. 3446),
which will place a three-year ban on the capture and
slaughter of Yellowstone buffalo, dismantle the Stephen's
Creek trap, and allow buffalo access to historic public
lands habitat immediately adjacent to the park. It has
more than 70 co-sponsors in the United States House
of Representatives. Citizens from around the country
are demanding protection for this national treasure
and asking Congress to take the politics out of this
situation and put science first. "We have no idea
how this mismanagement will affect the genetic stability
of this unique herd and future generations. This is
an outrage!," said concerned citizen, Su Gregerson.
*Press Note: Unique footage from inside the capture
facility, RTR Ranch and hazing operations available
in addition to interviews. Thank you for covering this
important issue!
Buffalo Field Campaign; PO Box 957 West Yellowstone,
MT 59758
(406) 646-0070 phone (406) 646-0071 fax --- buffalo@wildrockies.org
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