Up to 900 to soon die-

Today the annual cull of Yellowstone bison got underway. It is plenty contentious. I have been ranting about this nearly annual slaughter since 1996 on The Wildlife News and its previous incarnations.

In recent years it has been mostly out of sight just north of the Park’s northern boundary. They are mostly not killed at the northern boundary. The wild bison are captured and hauled off to slaughterhouses like a bunch of pathetic cattle. The trapping and shipping of bison to slaughter is supposed to end March 31.

This year the goal is to take out 600-900 bison. The Park’s population of them is over 4000. Given that the Park’s carrying capacity is only 6000 and bison reproduction is rapid for so large an animal, they do require more space than the Park provides. So regardless, some must eventually be killed one way or another.

There was some hope that tribal and Montana hunting seasons would eliminate the need for the slaughterhouse. In addition, some thought the reintroduction of wolves would make a significant difference. Neither the hunting nor the wolves have made enough of a difference. Only one wolf pack, the Mollies Park, has seriously taken to hunting wolves.

Rather than the slaughterhouse it seems to me that if the bison were distributed over a considerably larger area in Montana outside the Park, the hunt would make more difference. Perhaps too Park personnel could strategically kill some bison at carefully considered areas in the Park backcountry to help the grizzly population. Each carcass provides much bear nutrition. Bison carcasses inside Yellowstone will be more significant if the grizzly is delisted and the states take to hunting grizzlies in any way like they hunt the more resilient wolves.

Opposition to bison occupying more territory has long faced opposition from ranchers who say they fear bison will spread brucellosis to cattle if they share any range. It is frustrating that this myth never dies despite no biological evidence or cases of cattle with brucellosis from bison. There are, of course, cattle with brucellosis from elk, but the State of Montana has been wary about slaughtering elk.

One bright note is that this winter Montana’s governor, Steve Bullock, issued a decision that would let bison use about 250-thousand acres of land adjacent to the Park boundaries on the northwest, and west sides of Yellowstone. The decision has yet to be adopted, however, by the Interagency Bison Committee.

Ranchers are trying to block the governor’s change. They say it will spread brucellosis, their weary battle cry. I have always thought the real reason is they don’t want to share the grass. Then too, keeping bison down is just another way of showing their sense of cultural superiority.

Journalist Chris Ketcham has been trying to cover the actual capture and penning of the bison, plus the shipment to slaughterhouse. The Park Service did not want him to see this. He and Stephanie Seay sued for an injunction to stop the capture, but they did not get it.

Today Ketcham has an article in the New York Times, “The Bison Roundup the Government Wants to Hide”

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Information from the Buffalo Field Campaign on how to contact the principals of the bison slaughter.

Contact Yellowstone National Park and Montana’s Governor to urge them to stop capture plans! There is no brucellosis threat from wild bison to cattle, and there is no overpopulation or “surplus” of ecologically extinct wild, migratory buffalo. The entire capture-for-slaughter plan is designed only to appease Montana livestock interests by catering to their unwarranted intolerance of native wild, migratory buffalo. People across the country and around the world oppose this disrespectful, brutal, and unnecessary mistreatment of wild buffalo. Take action and demand that Yellowstone National Park cancel plans to capture for slaughter (or any reason) this country’s last wild buffalo herds!

Superintendent Dan Wenk can be reached by phone 307-344-2002 Montana Governor Steve Bullock can be reached by phone 406-444-3111