|
Dear
Buffalo Friends,
All of the buffalo captured in West Yellowstone on Friday
- 52 total - were released Sunday morning. This
includes the 16 bulls that the Montana Department of
Livestock and Yellowstone National Park had intended
to slaughter.
THANK YOU! YOUR PERSISTENT ACTION MADE
THE DIFFERENCE AGAIN!
In less than two weeks, your calls and emails to Governor
Schweitzer and Yellowstone National Park saved the lives
of hundreds of buffalo and have brought an incredible
amount of media attention to the issue.
While there is a relatively happy ending, these 52 buffalo
endured an ordeal. Not only was their migration forcefully
choked, they were captured, moms and calves were separated,
family groups were broken apart, they were loaded onto
livestock trailers, unloaded at the Duck Creek bison
trap, re-loaded onto livestock trailers and hauled over
150 miles to the northern boundary of Yellowstone National
Park. Then they were placed in the Stephens Creek bison
trap where they spent a few days before being hazed
deeper into Yellowstone. Agents released them at 5:30
in the morning. Starting that early indicates that there
was something they didn't want the public to see. You
can see a short BFC video clip of the capture on our
home page: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org.
Over the weekend and up through today, the agents have
been continuously harassing wild bison in Montana and
Yellowstone National Park. Park visitors witnessed
the shameful spectacle of the Interagency Bison Management
Plan participants hazing wild bison from horseback and
with a helicopter inside Yellowstone's boundaries.
One Park ranger explained to outraged tourists today
that they were witnessing "a buffalo drive."
Welcome to the world's first national park.
Wild buffalo are being managed like livestock and treated
as vermin under pressure from Montana's cattle industry.
The agencies and media have been describing wild, migrating
buffalo with words like "renegade," "wandering"
and "recalcitrant." These same terms
never apply to migrating whales, salmon, birds or other
animals; why does Montana insist on such misnomers for
wild bison? Native to nearly the entire North
American continent, wild buffalo roam. Buffalo
are doing exactly what they evolved to do.
They are attempting to naturally restore themselves
and while this should be cause for enormous celebration,
government and industry punish them.
Year-round habitat for wild buffalo in Montana is the
solution.
Keep the pressure on the decision-makers and the vision
of wild, free-roaming buffalo alive. We will make
it happen.
Roam Free!
Buffalo Field Campaign
Top
of Page
|
