| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
|
| Weekly
Update from the Field March 31, 2005 |
 |
| |
|
|
*
Update from the Field
* Comment on Quarantine Proposal
* Week of Action - Boycott the Livestock Industry
* Thank you AIM and Rosalie Little Thunder
* Last Words |
*
Update from the Field
Hard to know how to begin this update; it is a very hard
one to tell. The week started out with a haze on Friday.
The Department of Livestock (DOL), Fish, Wildlife and
Parks (FWP), U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Park Service,
along with the help of the local sheriff, pushed 45 buffalo
back into Yellowstone National Park, off Horse Butte,
off the bluffs of the Madison, across highway 191. After
the haze was over and the agents gone, the buffalo turned
right back around and headed back to Horse Butte. They
know where they need to be, and it is their right to be
there.
On Saturday, a mixed herd of fourteen buffalo migrated
along Duck Creek, attempted to cross the road, and were
hazed back to the Park by the local DOL agent, Shane Grube.
Those buffalo came right back out again, too, only this
time they entered the private land of Dale Koelzer, where
lies the Duck Creek buffalo trap. The agents have been
baiting the buffalo with fresh hay and leaving the gate
open. On Easter Sunday, under the cover of darkness, the
agents shut the gate. The buffalo were imprisoned after
only a single attempt to haze them.
Monday went by without knowing the fate of the fourteen
buffalo in the trap. The buffalo on the Butte were spotted
by two DOL agents on snowmobiles. BFC patrols kept well
hidden and were able to document a vicious attempt by
a DOL agent to run over a yearling that stood in the road.
Luckily the little one got out of the way just in time.
Bitter and cruel, the agents sped off. Later that day
as patrols were helping with a buffalo crossing, the same
blue pickup truck that shot at one of our patrol cars
last week drove by and actually shot one of our volunteers
in the back with paint balls. They got caught. That was
the best news of the week.
Tuesday came and we watched the Duck Creek trap all day
and all night. Our patrols documented agents poking and
prodding the captive wild buffalo with electric cattle
prods, hooting, hollering, and taunting them them from
above. Trapped and frightened, the buffalo suffered the
bullying. The agents demonstrated sinister behavior towards
the buffalo and then would turn around to laugh at our
volunteers. These agents are cruel, and they enjoy tormenting
the buffalo and tormenting us. This is all very typical
behavior. What they don't realize is that we, like the
buffalo, are far stronger than they could ever imagine.
Enter the nightmare of Wednesday. Attempting to find out
from the DOL what the fate of the fourteen buffalo would
be was much like pulling teeth. They didn't want to tell
us in a timely fashion, because they didn't want us to
tell the story. But we found out. Of the fourteen, six
females and two bulls tested "positive" for
brucellosis exposure and were sent to slaughter, three
bull yearlings were sent to a quarantine facility, and
two cows and a bull were "released" and hazed
to the far end of Horse Butte. Before the three were let
go, the agents hazed about 150 buffalo off of the Butte.
Some of these buffalo had found their wounded matriarch,
a pregnant female and mother of a yearling, who nearly
a month ago had been struck by a car and came away with
a broken leg. She had been holding her own. She was caught
up in additional hazing operations over the course of
the weeks, had made it back to the Butte, and had found
herself a safe harbor there. She was surviving, and if
she didn't, she would help give life to grizzlies, ravens,
wolves, and coyotes. But she did survive. Her family members
came back for her. We can only imagine the reunion it
was. And she was with them when the motorized cowboys
came after them again. She was with her herd, running
from the agents, sometimes in the lead, sometimes in the
middle, but never behind. The motorized cowboys singled
her out. Our patrols were documenting the haze when they
heard three gunshots. They killed her. Then they tied
her to the back of a snowmobile, a rope around her neck
and horns, and dragged her body to a flatbed truck. She
was then hauled to the local dump and left with the trash
to be incinerated. The agents claim they were doing her
some sort of favor, but why didn't they do it closer to
the time she got hit? They had ample opportunity. They
should have just left her alone and let her go back to
the Earth, not burn her with the trash.
We have lost nine of our friends this week, nine of America's
last wild buffalo, to the greed and fear of the livestock
industry and the government puppets that do their bidding.
All supposedly in the name of protecting the invisible
cattle from a disease - brucellosis - brought to our wildlife
by cattle. A disease that wild buffalo have NEVER transmitted
to cattle. But, it's not about brucellosis; this is a
range war. It is about the grass and who gets to eat it.
The livestock producers believe strongly that the grass
is meant only for fattening their cattle. But the buffalo
and other wildlife were here first, and they hold natural,
ancestral rights to the land that they are repeatedly
and harshly kept from accessing. Watching them move with
their heads down, as they are pushed off of their homeland,
is like watching a trail of tears over and over and over
again.
With every haze, the DOL agents cause terrific trouble.
For the wild buffalo and other wildlife, but also for
the motorists who use highway 191. Every time the agents
push the buffalo back into the Park, the buffalo turn
back around, and have to cross the highway again and again.
The buffalo just want to get to Horse Butte. This is national
forest land where there are no active cattle grazing allotments.
It is also the traditional calving grounds of the buffalo.
With its massive south-facing slopes, Horse Butte offers
the first shoots of good green grass each Spring. It is
surrounded by water, and provides a natural buffer, so
if separation from cattle is really what the livestock
industry wants, Horse Butte provides it. So, why can't
the buffalo be left alone there at least? The people who
live near the Butte want the buffalo there. But the agencies
involved are deaf to logic, and are only interested in
protecting the property rights of livestock producers,
even on our public lands. So what can we do? It all comes
down choice: wild buffalo or livestock. You can make the
decision every time you go to the grocery store. You can
choose to support the industrial livestock industry, or
you can choose not to. It's that simple.
As I write this, the agents are out again in full force,
hazing buffalo off the Butte. Tonight, the buffalo will
move back across the highway towards the Butte again.
The agents' efforts are ridiculous and fruitless. |
 |
Quicktime
Real
Player
Windows
Media |
Video
by BFC from 03/30/05
Eight buffalo being transported
to
slaughter. An injured lead cow
buffalo being shot in the field
during a hazing operation
Wednesday, and then her body
dragged to the local dump to be
incinerated with the trash. |
|
| You
can help stop the slaughter of America's last wild buffalo,
and all the other wildlife - prairie dogs, wolves, wild
horses, etc. - that fall victim to the greed of the
livestock industry. Your voice, your actions, your choices
determine how much power the livestock industry has.
Make the choice for wild, free-roaming buffalo re-inhabiting
their native lands.
For the Buffalo,
~Stephany
----------------------------------
* Comment on Quarantine Proposal
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks
(FWP) in cooperation with USDA's Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a notice of intent
to produce an Environmental Assessment (EA) for Phases
II and III of a "bison quarantine feasibility study."
Yesterday, after being captured, tested, and tormented
by livestock agents, three yearling bulls were sent
to a quarantine facility. They are the first three.
They have been torn from their families. They have been
ripped from their mother's sides. Most likely, their
mothers have been sent to slaughter. These yearlings
will be held in confinement, in a cage the size of a
big back yard, surrounded by double-electric fencing.
They will be there for years. They will be tested and
re-tested and tested again. They will grow up without
mothers, aunts, or elders. They will grow up unable
to migrate. They will be stripped of their wildness.
They will reach maturity not knowing what it really
means to be a wild buffalo, but they will feel the pull
of something far greater than the life they've been
locked into. More than half of the 200 yearling-goal
that are captured and sent to quarantine will be slaughtered.
Speak out against this attempt to domesticate wild Yellowstone
buffalo. Let FWP and APHIS know that these buffalo are
not available for their science projects. The solutions
to restoring wild buffalo to their native range are
rooted in the restoration of migratory corridors where
buffalo can re-inhabit the ancient lands of their ancestors
at their own time and pace. If Montana Fish, Wildlife
& Parks wants to help restore buffalo, then let
them work to create habitat within the Greater Yellowstone
Area for the expanding wild herd. These buffalo are
not domestic cattle. Quarantine is simply not appropriate
or acceptable for the last wild, genetically pure buffalo
in the this country.
Visit http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/legislative/bisonquarantine.html
for more information including the agency's notice of
intent and the EA for Phase I.
FWP will be accepting comments on the proposal until
April 15, 2005. Email your comments to BisonQuarantineEA@mt.gov
or send them to Bison Quarantine EA, Montana Fish, Wildlife
and Parks, P.O. Box 200701, Helena, MT 59620-0701; fax:
406-444-4952.
Contact BFC's Josh Osher with questions: bfc-advocate@wildrockies.org.
----------------------------------
* Week of Action - Boycott the Livestock Industry
"Beef: It's what's killing wild buffalo."
During the week of April 30 - May 8, we will be conducting
education and outreach regarding the dire effects of
the livestock industry. We call on you to join us in
a Boycott. Livestock producers cause more harm to this
country's wildlife than nearly any other industry. "Beef,
it's what's for dinner" is the very thing that
is killing our wild buffalo, wild horses, prairie dogs,
wolves, and the countless other plant and animal species
that suffer to appease the fears and greed of livestock
producers.
If you have information that you want us to share with
supporters, please let us know. We want to offer books,
resources, recipes, examples of livestock-induced destruction,
and more. Please send your ideas and suggestions to
Stephany at bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Many thanks to
those of you who have been sending us great quotes and
web sites - keep them coming!
----------------------------------
* Thank you AIM and Rosalie Little Thunder
Many thanks to Marty FireRider and Joseph Red Bear of
the American Indian Movement in San Diego. They invited
BFC back on their World Talk Radio program, American
Indian Movement Today, where we continued our discussion
of the plight of the last wild buffalo. We were joined
on the program by Lakota elder Rosalie Little Thunder,
a co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign.
Thank you Marty, Joseph, and Rosalie! You are such a
powerful influence, and your voice lends a timeless
strength and knowledge to the cause of the last wild
buffalo. It is an honor to know and work with you to
help protect these sacred beings. Let us rally the troops
and gather the voices so that the slaughter can be stopped
once and for all.
You can listen to yesterday's program by going to
http://www.worldtalkradio.com/archive.asp?aid=3723.
You need the latest version of Windows Media Player
to listen.
In Solidarity for the Wild Things!
~Stephany
P.S. Get your beautiful selves to West Yellowstone,
and bring lots of friends! We are waiting!
----------------------------------
* Last Words
"He knew where he was, and watching [the stars
go by] could almost forget the strange noises and uncertain
swaying of the train that carried him tirelessly and
headlong into the night. In darkness not much spoke
of change. He could imagine the hills black with buffalo,
moving slow and ponderous, with the solidity and weight
of sliding earth ... He could imagine this and feel
a welling, a springing in his blood."
~From "Dance Back the Buffalo" by Milton Lott
Top
of Page
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
