| Survey
Shows Americans Oppose Yellowstone Buffalo Slaughter
Helena, MT - A nationwide survey finds that
75 percent of Americans disapprove of slaughtering buffalo
wandering outside the boundaries of Yellowstone National
Park. The National Park Service (NPS) and the Montana
Department of Livestock (MDOL) have killed 278 buffalo
this year and hazed and harassed wild buffalo nearly
every day this spring. The Yellowstone herd is the last
remaining continuously wild, genetically pure herd of
buffalo in the United States.
The survey was commissioned by The Humane Society of
the United States and conducted by Penn, Schoen and
Berland Associates in April 2004. Out of 900 adults
in the United States, 75 percent of respondents said
that they disapproved of the policy allowing the slaughter,
with 59 percent of those polled indicating that they
"strongly disapprove." An even higher proportion
of respondents oppose the use of federal funds to implement
the program to kill the buffalo. The poll has a margin
of error of ± 3.3 percent.
"It's a travesty that this lethal policy continues
year after year despite such strong public opposition,"
said Wayne Pacelle, CEO-Designate of The Humane Society
of the United States.
Citizens Take Message
to Montana State Capitol Saturday
Buffalo supporters will gather at the Montana State
Capitol in Helena on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 to mourn
the buffalo killed this year and speak out to stop the
ongoing slaughter. The group will place 278 gravestones,
one for each buffalo killed this season, on the East
Lawn of the Montana State Capitol. "Montana has
zero tolerance for wild buffalo in the state. The responsibility
for the ongoing slaughter of the last herd of wild bison
rests here, at the Montana State Capitol," said
Ted Fellman of the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC).
Under pressure from Montana's powerful livestock industry,
the state and Federal Governments have slaughtered 2,780
Yellowstone buffalo in the past ten years. Brucellosis
is the supposed reason for the slaughter but there has
never been a documented transmission from wild buffalo
to livestock. Despite the lack of scientific evidence,
government agencies spend three million dollars a year
on the Interagency Bison Management Plan, a plan that
denies America's last wild herd of buffalo access to
public lands in and adjacent to America's first national
park.
"The buffalo slaughtered this year and in previous
years died needlessly, senselessly, and cruelly,"
said BFC volunteer Stephany Seay. "America's rich
natural heritage is far too precious to be victimized
by greed. The state of Montana has a unique opportunity
and should recognize the great treasure in our midst.
We urge the state to stop the slaughter now, once and
for all."
Dressed in black, citizens will gather between the State
Capitol and the Montana Department of Livestock in protest
of the continued hazing, capture, testing, and slaughter
of the Yellowstone buffalo.
This event is being organized by the Buffalo Field Campaign,
the only group working in the field 365 days a year
to protect America's last wild buffalo.
View photos from the Helena
rally.
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