2005-2006 Kill Exceeds 1,000

For Immediate Release:
June 19, 2006

Contact:
Dan Brister (406) 726-5555

Gardiner, Montana - This morning USDA APHIS officials shipped 48 of 96 bison held in the Corwin Springs quarantine facility to slaughter, bringing to 903 the number of buffalo killed as a result of Park Service operations since January and to 1,011 the total number killed by management actions and hunters. More buffalo were killed this winter/spring than during any year since 1996-1997, when 1,084 buffalo were killed. 48 bison are still confined in the Corwin Springs quarantine pen north of Gardiner.

"Wild buffalo should be revered and respected, not killed and caged so cattle can monopolize the landscape," said Dan Brister of the Buffalo Field Campaign. "The quarantine experiment, in which buffalo are domesticated for years on end and half slaughtered, is nothing more than a taxpayer funded bison ranch," he said.   

None of the adult bison slaughtered by the Park Service this year were first tested for brucellosis. Fear that bison may transmit brucellosis to cattle is the purported justification for the aggressive management of wild buffalo by state and federal agencies. Yet there has never been a documented case of wild bison transmitting brucellosis to livestock, even in the years before the current plan was enacted.

"The Yellowstone buffalo are national treasures, symbols of America's wild and untamed spirit," said Stephany Seay of the Buffalo Field Campaign. "Rather than spending time and resources quarantining and slaughtering them, the Park Service should be safeguarding habitat and protecting the buffalo under their care."

The Yellowstone bison herd is America's only continuously wild herd. Wild bison are a migratory species native to North America and once spanned the continent, numbering an estimated 30 to 50 million.

Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field, everyday, to stop the slaughter of the wild Yellowstone buffalo. Volunteers defend the buffalo on their native habitat and advocate for their protection.

Total Yellowstone Buffalo Killed 2005-2006:   1010
Slaughtered by Montana Department of Livestock (DOL): 50
Shot by Montana Department of Livestock (DOL): 7
Drowned During DOL Hazing Operation: 2
Slaughtered by Yellowstone National Park: 903
Shot by Yellowstone National Park: 1
Died in Confinement in Yellowstone National Park: 3
Shot by Montana Hunters: 45