| WEST
YELLOWSTONE, MONTANA. Today, the Montana Department
of Livestock (DOL), Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks
(FWP), the National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest
Service abandoned their short lived adherence to the
adaptive changes to the Interagency Bison Management
Plan by hazing nearly all of the buffalo that are currently
in Montana back into Yellowstone National Park, including
very pregnant females and many newborn calves.
According to a DOL press release issued by the Montana
Dept. of Fish Wildlife and Parks, the DOL's new public
relations agency, the purpose of the hazing operations
is to "limit the risk of brucellosis transmission
from bison to cattle". However there are
no cattle currently present in the West Yellowstone
nor will any cattle arrive for well over a month.
The press release further states that, " Research
indicates that brucellosis can persist in the environment
for some time under varying temperature and light conditions."
However, the very same research also indicates that
bacterium from aborted fetuses placed in the environment
was gone by mid-May regardless of the date the fetuses
were placed. An additional study also concluded
that the average time for fetuses to disappear due to
the activity of scavengers was 14 days. At the
very least, this information leads to the conclusion
that DOL/FWP are only telling a portion of the story
to sugarcoat the agencies arbitrary actions and justify
the mistreatment of the wild buffalo.
The release also falsely stated that wild bison would
be hazed off of private land only, yet bison are being
chased off of public land where they are supposed to
be tolerated. This is the second time in a month
that the IBMP agencies have ignored their agreement.
The IBMP adaptations memorandum can be viewed at: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/legal/adaptivemanagement.html.
"Montana livestock interests are lying to the public
trying to make people believe that brucellosis in wild
bison is a serious threat to human health and cattle,"
said Mike Mease of BFC. "The truth is, brucellosis
is off the CDC radar. It's a cattle-borne disease,
and that's where management controls should be focused."
The only cases of any wildlife transmitting brucellosis
to cattle have occurred as the result of the gross mismanagement
of elk on game farms and feedgrounds. The fact
is that there is no significant risk of brucellosis
transmission from naturally occurring wildlife populations
to domestic cattle. The agencies are all well
aware of this fact, as it has been widely documented
by years of scientific research.
"Brucellosis is a fraud," said Robert Hoskins,
a Wyoming naturalist who's working on natural history
and local ecological knowledge. "No one associated
with the livestock industry or government has ever presented
a legitimate argument that wildlife brucellosis is a
threat to the livestock industry or even public health,
for that matter, nor that brucellosis is even legitimately
a bio-terrorism hazard. It's all politics; It's
all about denying habitat to wildlife, whether bison,
bears, wolves, or elk."
On the scene of today's hazing operations were Mike
Volesky of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer's office,
Becky Weed and George Harris of the Montana Board of
Livestock, and Mel Frost spokeswoman of Montana Fish,
Wildlife & Parks.
"As they always do, the agents ran the buffalo
hard," said BFC spokesperson Stephany Seay.
"Buffalo moms with newborns, pregnant buffalo and
yearlings were panting and frantic, but once the state
spectators arrived on the scene, the agents curbed their
aggression to make it look like hazing is just a gentle
picnic, which it is anything but."
There has never been a documented case of wild bison
transmitting the European livestock disease brucellosis
to livestock, even prior to implementation of Interagency
Bison Management Plan.
American Bison once spanned the continent, numbering
between 30 and 50 million. The Yellowstone bison are
genetically unique and are America's only continuously
wild herd, numbering fewer than 3,600 animals, .01 percent
of the bison's former population.
1,912 bison have been killed since 2000 under the Interagency
Bison Management Plan. Last winter Federal and
State agencies killed or authorized the killing of more
than 1,010 bison. So far this winter two bison
were captured and sent to slaughter by Montana Department
of Livestock agents and hunters have killed 58.
Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) is the only group working
in the field, every day, to stop the slaughter of the
wild Yellowstone buffalo. Volunteers defend the
buffalo and their native habitat and advocate for their
lasting protection. BFC has proposed real alternatives
to the current mismanagement of Yellowstone bison that
can be viewed at
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/solutions05.html.
For more information, video clips and photos visit:
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org.
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