| WEST
YELLOWSTONE, MT- Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers
occupied Forest Service road 610 early this morning,
blocking access to a bison capture facility site on
the Horse Butte Peninsula. One activist sat in a platform
suspended from a tripod while another attached herself
to a locking device which was buried in the road.
A third perched in a tree and videotaped as law enforcement
personnel worked to remove the protesters and dismantle
the blockade. The Horse Butte Peninsula is located on
the Gallatin National Forest immediately to the west
of Yellowstone National Park. In addition to the Yellowstone
buffalo, the peninsula provides critical winter habitat
for the Yellowstone buffalo, bald eagle, gray wolf,
trumpeter swan, peregrine falcon, grizzly bear, wolverine,
lynx, and boreal owl.
There are no cows on Horse Butte until June. All of
these cows winter in Idaho, and are currently vaccinated
against brucellosis. The summer grazing on Horse Butte
amounts to 172 cow/calf pairs being present from June
15th through October. Although this grazing allotment
brings in less than $800 to the U.S. Treasury, the state
and federal governments have committed more than $ 40
million over the next 15 years to haze, capture, and
slaughter buffalo.
"Powerful livestock interests are robbing our treasury
with one hand while they slaughter America's last wild
herd of buffalo with the other," stated BFC spokesperson
Dan Brister. "Today's actions demonstrate our commitment
to bring the unnecessary slaughter to a stop." The blockade
was constructed a day after DOL agents began clearing
the snow-covered road, alerting the bison advocates
of their intentions to construct the trap.
The
facility is designed to capture and test buffalo who
migrate to the peninsula. During the winter of 1998-99,
the Horse Butte trap was used to capture more than a
hundred buffalo. The DOL slaughtered 94 buffalo that
winter.
DOL agents arrived at the scene shortly after 8 am and
focused attention on Jayna Jensen who was locked into
the road. After removing her sleeping bag the livestock
agents took her food and water and poured her warm tea
on the ground inches from her face. Facing hypothermia
in the subfreezing temperatures, she released from the
lockdown on her own after three and a half hours. The
agents then focused their attention on the man in the
tripod, attempting to knock him from his perch 30 feet
above the ground by repeatedly poking him with a long
stick.
Law
enforcement officers from the Department of Livestock,
Montana Highway Patrol, the Gallatin County Sheriff's
Department, and the US Forest Service worked together
later in the day, with an electric company cherry picker,
to pluck first the videographer and then the man occupying
the tripod. Both were arrested and sent to the Gallatin
County Detention Center in Bozeman.
Of
the 65,000 public comments submitted on the Draft Environmental
Impact Statement for long-term bison management, the
majority were not in support of government policies
of trapping migrating buffalo. "The Buffalo Field Campaign
will continue to stand up for the 65,000 unheard voices
in protecting our country's national treasure of buffalo,"
stated Mike Mease.
Buffalo
Field Campaign volunteers defend the buffalo on their
traditional winter habitat and advocate for their protection.
BFC is the only group working in the field every day
to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild buffalo.
Video footage available upon request
Top
of Page
|
