| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| Press
Release- 1/23/03 |
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| Department
of Livestock Captures Two Buffalo; One Escapes
For Immediate
Release: January 29, 2003
Contacts: Ted Fellman, Jonas Ehudin (406) 646-0070
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West
Yellowstone, MT- Montana Department of Livestock
(DOL) agents captured two bull bison yesterday afternoon
and attempted to capture a third this morning. The agents
were assisted by a ranger from Yellowstone National Park
and game wardens with the Montana Department of Fish,
Wildlife and Parks.
During this morning's operation a herd of approximately
a dozen elk was spooked from a riparian area along Duck
Creek when eight agents on snowmobiles and two on horseback
disturbed them in their attempt to haze the buffalo to
the capture facility. The buffalo was hazed through a
barbed wire fence at least four times before eluding the
agents and escaping into heavy timber.
"The DOL claimed to have hazed the bull back to the
park but our volunteers were stationed on the park boundary
and the bull never went back in," according to BFC
volunteer Mike Mease.BFC volunteer Kat Koch said "I
watched eight snowmobiles, two men on horseback, two sheriffs,
and a DOL agent in a truck chasing one bull
bison. It was completely absurd. And even with all their
manpower, wildness won."
The Department of Livestock has spent nearly $3.5 million
since 1996 on bison management operations that have killed
1,825 wild bison. The
Yellowstone herd is the only wild herd in the United States.
It is
descended from just 23 wild bison that survived the mass
eradication of
the 19th century.
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